


Megaman ZX - The Novelization

by DarkGreiga



Series: Megaman ZX: Era of MegaMen [2]
Category: Rockman ZX | Mega Man ZX
Genre: F/M, FanFiction.Net, Novelization, Sidequests from the game added, Vent and Aile aren't siblings, Vent and Aile exist in the same universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-24
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2019-05-08 13:37:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 50,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14695302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkGreiga/pseuds/DarkGreiga
Summary: The story features both Vent and Aile as the main characters and might have some connections with my other ZX stories later on. Vent and Aile both lost their mothers in a Maverick raid, and their meeting with a certain man would be a change of destiny and life for them especially after a special delivery. Rock ON!





	1. The Maverick Raid

**Author's Note:**

> Yep, here's the second story in my ZX series, which is basically the novelization of the first title but both Vent and Aile are the main protagonists! Please enjoy!

For many years, men and machines had continued to fight with each other. Many victims had fallen over the years of war, but yet it wasn’t the reason for the war to stop. It was until a single Reploid came and saved the world, sacrificing himself for the sake of men and machines alike. With that sacrifice, the war had finally come to an end and the men and machines formed a truce.

The peace didn’t last forever, however. A group of machines made to attack men, Mavericks, had once again come into a rise. More victims fell to the Mavericks and men didn’t have the power to fight back. Even with the help with the good Reploids, they couldn’t take down a whole army of Mavericks all around the world. It was almost the end of the world, until one man rose up and hunted down the Mavericks.

Screams were heard everywhere. As common as screams were in amusement parks, those weren’t happy or excited screams. Those were screams of fear. The park’s rides were engulfed with flames as an army of Mavericks charged in into the park, killing anyone they saw on their way. People were running all over the park, trapped within the fire, and on the next second, their screams weren’t heard anymore.

A five years old boy with short brown hair and green eyes were running while holding a woman’s hand, whose hair and eye had the same color as him, except that her hair was longer. They came into a stop when they saw a group of Mavericks in front of them, pointing their guns at them. The woman knelt down to the boy, who was shaking in fear as he looked up at her.

“M-Mommy… I-I’m scared…” The boy whispered shakily as he held on to the woman tightly.

The woman hugged him and put a hand on his head, “It’s okay, Vent… Everything is going to be okay… Don’t worry, Mommy’s here…”

The Mavericks began shooting at them, but the woman had pulled the boy, Vent, into her arms and blocked the shots with her body. Vent shut his eyes until he noticed some liquid dripping to his hands. He opened his eyes to see the woman, his own mother, with her eyes completely lifeless before she collapsed on top of him.

“M-Mom…? Mommy! No, Mommy! Please! Don’t leave me!” Vent cried as he saw his mother die in front of his eyes before peeking from under his mother’s body and saw a shadowy figure in the shape of an ape, “Y-You! You killed my mom!”

The shadowy ape figure raised his left hand, which had something in it, before throwing the object at them. Vent crawled out from under his mother’s corpse to get away, but his legs and arms were still shaking heavily, making him unable to move as a sphere-shaped object was thrown towards his direction.

“Look out!”

A man with blond hair quickly ran to Vent’s side and picked him up before he jumped out of the way. With Vent locked in his arm, the man quickly ran towards the park’s exit, where a small staff building was. The man opened the door in a hurry and put Vent carefully before he got in and closed the door back. He peeked through the window and saw that there were no Mavericks around them and sighed before turning to Vent.

“That was close… Are you okay, little boy? Are you hurt?” The blond man asked.

Vent just shook his before he noticed the sound of mechanical footsteps outside the staff building they were in, “T-There’s… more… But… no security force…”

“This is bad…” The man peeked through the window once more before turning to Vent once more, “You wait here and hide. Don’t let those Mavericks see you!”

Vent only gave him a silent nod and saw as the man went out through the door. Vent tiptoed to see the man came running into the park and disappeared into the raging flames in the park. Just then, another army of Reploids came, but instead of aiming for the people, they were aiming the attacking Mavericks instead.

“That’s… Isn’t that… the big company’s security force…?” Vent asked himself as he saw that the Mavericks were being shot down one by one.

Meanwhile, the blond man was looking around in the park, desperately looking for more survivors. When he looked further in, he saw that there were people stuck in the Ferris wheel along with a flying Maverick. The man quickly made his way towards the wheel, but another flying Maverick came dashing towards him from his right side, knocking him away from the ground and towards a steel pillar supporting the thorn-down roller-coaster.

“Ugh…” The man got up and saw the flying Maverick had a gun pointed at him. Just as it was about to shoot, it was shot first and exploded. When the man turned to the direction where the shot came from, he saw a Galleon Hunter with green lights on its helmet, “Slither Inc.’s security force?” The sound of a gun was heard from the Ferris wheel, “Oh no!”

The man ran past the Galleon and quickly made his way towards the Ferris wheel, but it was too late as a corpse of a woman with brown hair reaching to her shoulder was found on the roof of the wheel’s control building. As the man was still looking up at the corpse on the roof, he heard some sobbing sound and turned to the bushes near the wheel. It turned out to be a five years old girl, crying in the bushes.

“It’s okay, little girl… Don’t cry now…” The man offered the girl his hand. The girl, who had short brown hair and green eyes, stopped crying to look at him and took his offered hand.

After the man pulled the girl out of the bushes, they saw that the fire had died down and not many Mavericks left were around. The security force had wiped most of them out, but they hadn’t left any more survivors left. The man walked out of the park along with the girl, who was clutching his hand with her own shaking hand.

Once they were out, they saw Vent, badly beaten up, standing over a headless Maverick, “It’s… it’s because of you guys…” Vent sniffed and let his tears drop, “If only… if only…” Vent fell to his knees and hit the headless and motionless Maverick under him with his fists, “… then… m-my mom…”

Vent didn’t get to finish his sentence as he has started crying, which made the girl the man had saved to cry as well. The man looked back and forth between them before letting out a long sigh, “I’m going to have my hands full taking care of these poor orphans for a while…”

Ten years had passed since the events of the Maverick attack. The two orphans were taken in by the man, called Giro, who was the head of Giro Express Transporters. The boy, Vent, and the girl, Aile, were taken care of by Giro before he asked them to help out as transporters once they got older. Aile was being helpful and became the clients’ favorite for her manners, while Vent was known to be rude to the clients.

It was a peaceful day in the city area, or Area C, and another delivery day for the transporters of Giro Express. Aile was taking a break after finishing her delivery, while Vent had just finished packing items to be delivered when Aile suddenly ran over to him and purposely making Vent to drop the boxes he was carrying.

“Stop it, Aile! Don’t you know how hard it was to pack those items?” Vent complained angrily before he picked up the boxes and stacked them up.

“Sorry, sorry!” Aile laughed jokingly before she picked up one and stacked it on top of another, “Let me help out, then!”

“It’s… it’s fine…” Vent replied quietly, but Aile could still hear him, “You should go back to having your break. You did go to a really far place for that delivery, right?”

“Yeah,” Aile turned to her friend, “Are you sure you don’t need any help?”

“I’m okay, these aren’t too heavy anyway…” Vent lifted up the stack of boxes before slowly walking towards the back room.

“Ah, Aile!” Giro came into the staff room, “Is that important package still on the place?”

Aile let out a sigh, “Yes, Giro… For the tenth time, it’s still there,” Aile moved out of the way and pointed at the smaller box sitting on top of the other bigger boxes, “See?”

“Alright,” Giro turned away and reached for the communication device on his ear, “Yes, we will be on our way,” Giro turned back to Aile, “Aile, tell Vent to get ready. The three of us are heading out to the forest area to deliver that important package.”

“Okay,” Aile nodded before Giro went out of the staff room. Aile picked up the small box and peeked through the door leading to the backroom, “Vent, are you done in there? Giro, you, and I are all going for a delivery! A very important delivery!”

“Huh? Another important delivery?” Vent’s voice was heard from deep inside the backroom, “Seriously, Boss always considers every delivery to be important deliveries… Alright, tell Boss I’ll be right there in a sec!”

“Don’t take too long or we’ll leave you behind!” Aile replied before she headed out of the staff room with the box in her hand.

“Geez, I’m going already!” Vent hurriedly left the backroom and headed out of the staff room.


	2. Rock ON!

A few minutes had passed since they left from the head office in the city on their bikes and Giro, Vent, and Aile had arrived in the forest area or Area A. Vent looked at his surroundings before he got off his bike and walked towards a dead tree on the end of the cliff. Aile, who was stretching her arms and legs, saw him walked away and followed him. Giro was standing by his bike as he got a transmission on his communicator.

“Hello! Thank you for calling Giro Express Transporters! We can take anything, anywhere!” Giro answered through his communicator.

 _“Giro? Is that you?”_ The voice of a girl was heard from the other side.

“Ah, the Guardian…” Giro replied, before he noticed what he said and corrected himself, “… or should I say client.”

 _“Did you receive the package from the archaeological recon unit?”_ The girl asked.

Giro looked back to Aile’s bike, where the package was, “Yes, I got it.”

 _“My unit is heading for the agreed upon rendezvous point. It’s a little sooner than expected, but let’s meet up there,”_ The girl continued.

“Alright,” Giro finally said before ending the transmission and turned to the two transporters standing next to a dead tree by the cliff, “Vent, Aile! Are you two ready to move out?” The two completely ignored him, making Giro walk closer to approach them, “Hey, did you hear me!?” Giro looked ahead from behind them and saw a big building in the middle of the other smaller buildings, “You can see the Slither Inc. building from here. This country sure has grown and prospered thanks to them.”

“Bigger isn’t always better,” Vent bluntly replied, not bothering to turn his head to the blond.

Aile nodded in agreement, “If only the security force had come sooner, then our mothers would still be with us today…”

Giro let out a sigh as he recalled the day when he saved the two from the Maverick raid and how he listened to their stories about how they lost their mothers, “I’m sorry that you two lost your mothers in the Maverick raids. I understand how you two feel, but don’t let on about your feelings in town. We were experiencing an energy crisis and suffering from never-ending Maverick raids. But that company stepped up and fixed all of those problems. As far as the people are concerned, the president of the company, Serpent, is a genuine hero,”

Giro turned away from the two and the cliff, “Anyway, we better get going. Our client is already on their way to the rendezvous point.”

Aile was the first one to go, but noticed that Vent was still standing on his place, “Come on, Vent. Let’s get going.”

Vent nodded and he went back to his bike, before noticing the package on Aile’s bike, “Hey Boss, just who are those Guardians that we took the job request from?” Giro turned to Vent as he continued, “They haven’t even told us what’s in the package they want delivered so badly.”

“The Guardians are a defense force that banded together to fight the Mavericks,” Giro started, getting the attention of both Vent and Aile, “Right now, they’re moving from place to place investigating the cause of Maverick outbreaks. As for the package, try not to ask too many questions. I’m sure it’s very important and very dangerous. It’s probably better we don’t know.”

“I see…” Aile shortly replied as she looked at the package on her bike.

Suddenly, the sound of buster guns were heard before the shots hit Giro’s bike. The three quickly crouched, hiding themselves behind their bikes. A small group of Galleon Hunters approached them, who had their guns pointed at the three of them. Aile peeked from behind her bike and saw that the Galleons were pointing the guns at them.

“W-What’s happening?” Aile asked, turning to the two males with her.

“Those are Mavericks! But how did they get here!?” Giro asked himself, bracing himself as more shots were coming his way, “Ugh!” Giro moved back as his bike started smoking and headed for Aile’s bike, which was right behind his and noticed the package, “The package! They must be after it!”

Aile grabbed the package and held it tightly, not noticing that buster shots were coming to her way, but Vent noticed them and jumped from his bike to Aile’s side, but the shots had hit her bike and making it explode, before its explosion expanded to Vent’s. The shockwave from the two exploding bikes had sent the two younger transporters off the cliff, along with the package.

“AAAHHH!!!” The two fell off the cliff, and Aile’s grip on the package loosened up, separating it from them.

“Vent! Aile!” Giro yelled as he saw the two being thrown away off the cliff.

The two landed hard on the grassy ground, not noticing that the package had fallen and rolled away from them. Aile got up slowly, unaware of the male transporter under her, “Ugh… That was a long and scary fall…”

“Yeah, to me it was a really bad and painful fall…” Vent added and Aile saw that she was sitting on Vent, who landed face down, “Can’t you get off me already!?”

“Sorry!” Aile quickly stood up before Vent stood up in pain.

“Vent! Aile! You two okay!?” The two looked up and saw a worried Giro, “The package! Do you see it!? It should’ve fallen near you!”

Aile looked ahead and saw the small box, which had been thorn a bit, “There! Is that it?”

Vent and Aile walked closer and picked it up, “Oh great, the box’s ruined,” Vent took out a blue box of metal from the worn box before throwing away the thorn box, “We won’t need this junk anymore!”

“Vent!” Aile glared at him angrily.

“Vent, Aile! Listen!” The two younger transporters looked up, “Take that package to the rendezvous point and give it to the Guardians! I’ll join you later once I take care of business up here! Protect that package at all costs!”

“Roger that, Boss!” Giro saw Vent saluting at him with a smile before he took off with Aile.

 _‘Seriously, Vent… what should I do about you? You can take Aile as a good example for you…’_ Giro thought before turning back to the Galleon Hunters, which had him cornered to the edge of the cliff, _‘This is bad… I think they knew that I still have another one with me here…’_ Giro eyed his pocket before turning back to the Galleon Hunters.

_“I can help you.”_

“Huh?” Giro looked around, but saw that he was the only one there along with the Mavericks, “W-Who are you? What do you want!?”

 _“I am Biometal Model Z,”_ A red box of metal came out of Giro’s pocket, _“You can trust me. I will lend you my strength to fight them and reunite you with your precious friends.”_

Giro looked at Model Z for a moment before nodding, “Please do, Model Z,” Model Z floated closer to Giro before they were both engulfed in bright light.

Meanwhile under the cliff, Vent and Aile had only walked for a few meters when they were stopped by two people in green uniform with a gun and a girl in pink behind them. As they walked closer, the two pointed their guns at the transporters, who raised their hands out of reflexes.

“Who are you!? What are you doing here!?” One of them asked, pointing his gun at them.

“H-Hold on! We’re only delivering a package!” Aile nervously replied.

The girl behind the two people in green walked in front of them, “Bar, Maquereau, lower your weapons,” The girl motioned the two, who did as they were told, “Are the two of you transporters?”

“Yeah, we are,” Vent replied, “Are you Guardians?”

The girl in pink nodded, “Yes. We heard an explosion nearby and came to investigate.”

The ground suddenly started shaking, before a snake-like Mechaniloid came out from the ground right in front of the five of them. The Mechaloid looked down at them with its shadow completely covering the five of them.

“W-what’s that!?” One of the Guardians, Maquereau, asked in panic as he got his gun ready.

“A snake Mechaniloid! Is that thing with the Mavericks?” Aile asked as she looked up at its head.

“I’m sure of it! It must be the leader of the Mavericks which attacked us!” Vent replied and turned to see that the two Guardians were getting their guns ready before firing the Mechaniloid.

“Prairie! It’s too dangerous! Take the Biometal and get out of here!” The other one of the Guardians said as he kept firing the Mechaniloid, but his bullets kept bouncing off. The snake Mechaniloid slammed its tail down, knocking the two Guardians down.

“No! Everyone!” The girl ran over to the two Guardians and knelt beside them.

“Hey! Please get up!” Vent said as he approached the three, “We need to move! They’re after the package! Just leave it! If we take it with us, they’ll hunt us down!”

“But I can’t let the Biometal fall into the wrong hands!” The girl looked up at Vent and protested.

Aile threw the blue metal she was holding angrily before she ran to Vent’s side and faced the girl, “Is that Biometal thing that important!? Whatever that Biometal is, it can’t be worth throwing your life away! Come on, we have to go!”

“But Sis…” The girl looked down sadly, “She left that for us. It’s too valuable to just give it up now!”

Vent growled angrily before noticing that the snake Mechaniloid was getting closer to them. Vent and Aile quickly ran between the Mechaniloid and the three Guardians, but they had no clue what to do next as the Mechaniloid was at least three times their own height.

“What now, Vent?” Aile turned to Vent, who was as clueless as she was.

“How should I know!?” Vent replied in frustration before looking back to the snake Mechaniloid, “We can’t handle this on our own!”

 _“But we can together,”_ The blue metal which Aile had thrown away earlier floated in front of them, _“I’ll lend you a hand.”_ The blue metal floated closer between them and engulfed them in bright light.

“AAAGHHH!!!”

_“Biolink Established! M. E. G. A. System Online!”_

Vent and Aile’s bodies were covered in blue-colored armor, and their heads were covered with a blue helmet with a red gem on it. Their right arms turned into buster guns, which they charged up before aiming their shots at the snake’s head. The snake let out a screech in pain as the attacks hit its head hard. Vent and Aile were panting, drained from the charged shot attack.

“What happened to us?” Aile asked in between her panting, “This power… is this the power of the Biometal…?”

 _“Don’t be afraid. I’m Biometal Model X,”_ A voice echoed in the two transporters’ heads.

“Model… X?” Vent turned to Aile, who was looking as confused as he was, “Aile, did you hear that? Did you hear a voice?”

“Yeah, I guess I did…” Aile replied before lowering her buster gun.

 _“We have to move away from here or that girl will get caught in the middle. With our combined strength, we can fight them off!”_ Model X told the two, who nodded in reply.

The snake moved away, leaving the two along with the three Guardians. The girl stood up and gasped when she saw that Vent’s and Aile’s appearances had changed, “They transformed!? Are they the two of the Chosen Ones?”

“Hey, you!” Vent turned to the girl in pink, “We need to deliver this to the rendezvous point, right? You just wait here!”

“W-Wait!” Vent and Aile stopped as they were about to dash away and turned to the girl, “I have a name! Prairie. The name’s Prairie.”

“Ah, please excuse his rudeness!” Aile pushed Vent as she walked a step closer to the girl and apologized, “My name is Aile, and this is Vent. We’ll be your transporters today! Just wait here and we’ll get some help!”

“Thank you,” The girl, Prairie, smiled at them, “Please be careful, Vent and Aile!”

The two nodded before dashing away through the forest, following the tracks which were left by the snake Mechaniloid. As they were halfway through the forest area, they only encountered a few of the Mavericks which only popped out one by one from the bushes as they passed by. Once they were farther in the forest, more and more Mavericks came popping out.

“There’s more!?” Aile asked as she shot them one by one, but more of them were still coming.

“Watch out!” Aile turned to see that Vent had shot a charged shot, which was only a few inches away from her, heading straight towards the group of Mavericks and destroyed many of them in mere seconds.

“Hey! I’m standing right here!” Aile turned to Vent angrily.

“Well, I did say ‘watch out’ didn’t I?” Vent defended himself, and then noticed that the ground was shaking a little, “Huh?” The shaking become more violently as the snake Mechaniloid was approaching them, “Aile, you ready? Just like last time, aim for-“

“The head,” Aile finished his sentence, “I know, Vent. I know what we did to that thing before!” Aile let out a sigh before charging her buster gun and aimed it at the snake’s head.

Aile’s double charged shots hit the snake’s heat, which made it turn to slam its tail against them, “Look out!” Vent tackled Aile, sending them away so that the snake’s tail hit the ground instead.

Aile charged up her buster gun again while Vent shot out his own double charged shots, but he missed his second shot. The snake shot up four green balls at them, but Aile had shot them before they could hit them before releasing her second shot at its head. As the snake turned away to slam its tail at them once more, Vent released both of his charged shots and both shots hit it, finishing it off.

“We did it…” Vent lowered his gun before turning it back into his arm, “You said your name was Model X. Why did you help us?”

 _“Do I need a reason to help people?”_ Model X replied, _“You seemed determined to help that girl even though you’ve never met her before. I just lend you a helping hand, you’re the brave ones.”_

“Us? Brave ones?” Vent laughed in embarrassment, “Not really, I guess… I personally think that if I didn’t at least try, I’d always regret it.”

“Well said, Vent!” Aile patted Vent’s back before casually putting her arm around him.

“T-Thanks…” Vent blushed as he noticed how close she was to him.

Aile looked ahead, “The rendezvous point should be just up ahead, right?” Aile asked and turned to Vent, who nodded in reply, “Let’s go!”

The two of them continued ahead and entered a door, which lead to a room with a transerver in it along with a few Guardians and an old Reploid in blue. The people in the room noticed them coming and turned to the door.

“We’re the transporters and we brought the package,” Aile started, getting the attention of the people in the room, “Back there a girl named Prairie is waiting and needs your help.”

“No way!” One of them spoke up in disbelief before turning to two of his comrades behind him, “Come on! Prairie and the others need us!”

The three Guardians left, leaving Vent and Aile along with the old Reploid who was looking at the two in fascination. Vent turned to the door where the Guardians left, “Everyone seems awfully worried about that Prairie girl…”

“Amazing…” The two transporters turned to the old Reploid, “It looks like you’ve managed to link up with the Biometal,” The old Reploid noticed that the two were staring at him, “Anyway, I’m glad it made it to us safe and sound.”

Aile suddenly remembered something, “Hey, have you seen Giro? There should have been another transporter with us. Has he arrived yet?”

The old Reploid shook his head, “No. You’re the only one that I’ve seen so far.”

The transerver beeped and the communication service was turned on as a voice came from the transerver, “This is Marue from the rescue squad, and we’ve found the others! We’ll treat the wounded and then head on back to HQ.”

“Hold on,” The old Reploid approached the transerver, “You haven’t spotted another transporter out there, have you? Apparently a transporter has gone missing in the area.”

Marue paused for a moment before replying, “Hey! There’s some serious smoke rising from the next area. It’s totally like someone has fallen under attack!”

“No… Boss!” Vent turned to the old Reploid, “We’re going to borrow this Biometal a little longer. We have to save him!”

“What!? You would put the Biometal at risk again!?” The old Reploid asked angrily.

“Oh I see!” Aile folded her arms in annoyance, “Now that your precious package is back, you don’t care about the man who risked his life to deliver it!”

“B-But!” The old Reploid was about to argue, but was cut off as Prairie’s voice was heard from the transerver.

“Wait! Fleuve! Let them go!”

“Prairie!?” The old Reploid, Fleuve, noticed the familiar voice.

“It’s okay Fleuve. They’ll keep the Biometal safe from the Mavericks. Vent… Aile… You risked your lives to save me even though you didn’t know me. I have faith in you two. I’ll clear it with Guardian HQ. Go, help him,” Prairie said, getting a nod from the two transporters.

“Now before you go, I have something to tell you two first,” Fleuve started, getting the attention from the two, “I’ve just received orders from HQ. You currently have two mission requests. One mission is to find your fellow transporter. The other mission is to complete a trial in order to get permission to enter Guardian HQ. Complete the two missions and return the Biometal to HQ. At HQ, we’ll sign off on the transporter request and your work will be done. You can decide which mission to start first at the transerver.”

“I see… We just have to complete those two missions then,” Vent said before turning to Aile, “Let’s go, Aile! We have to save Boss first!”

Aile nodded in agreement, “Yeah!”


	3. Locate Giro!

Vent and Aile continued through the door on the opposite side of the transerver room into the higher part of the forest, which led towards the mountain side of Area B. Wreckages of dead Mavericks and Mechaniloid littered the whole area as seen by the two transporters.

“It looks like there was a fight here,” Aile started and noticed that a clean pathway was between the wreckages, “I think we can try following this road. Maybe it’ll lead us to Giro,” Vent looked at the clean pathway as well before nodding in reply.

 _“Vent?_ _Aile? Come in Vent_ _and Aile,”_ Prairie’s voice was heard from the communication devices on Vent’s and Aile’s ears, _“About the Mavericks that attacked us, something_ _with the whole thing is bothering me. There might be a clue in the ruins about_ _what_ _’s causing the Maverick outbreaks. Check them out and see if you can find_ _something.”_

Vent cut off the communication before turning to Aile, “Now that she mentioned it, I guess the attack back then in the forest seems strange, though… It was as if they knew we were carrying a Biometal…”

“Yeah…” Aile replied as she stared at Vent in surprise, “But I think that it’s stranger for you to actually think about something…”

“H-Hey! It’s not like I’ve never thought about anything before doing something!” Vent protested, completely unaware of the moving wreckage behind him, “What?”

Aile didn’t reply, but instead released a charged shot past Vent, destroying a Galleon Hunter which had popped its gun out of the wreckages. Aile let out a sigh in relief before turning to Vent, who was shocked from her sudden attack, “Let’s just consider us to be even. You did that to me, now I’m simply getting a small revenge for that heart attack you gave me!”

Aile walked away, with Vent following her while feeling annoyed, “Well, except that I warned you before! You didn’t even tell me that there was still a Maverick left alive and just shot it ahead!” Vent stomped his foot in anger, but noticed that he had stepped on something. Vent looked down at his boot before picking the small object under it, “Is this a computer chip?”

“What is it? Did you find anything interesting?” Aile, who was already a few steps ahead, turned to him and asked, “A chip?”

 _“It must be a part that fell off one of the Mavericks_ _,”_ Prairie said through the communication devices, _“_ _If you bring it_ _back to HQ, we can analyze it. It might give us the lead we need. If you find_ _anything else, bring that back too_ _.”_

“Alright,” Vent held the chip in his hand before turning to Aile, “Let’s move!”

Aile nodded in agreement before the two of them headed deeper into the area. Even with a lot of wreckages around them, there were still some of them which were still operative and attacked them as they passed. When they crossed through an open field, Aile stopped in her tracks as she had heard a strange noise. Vent noticed that Aile had stopped walking and turned to see that she was looking up at the sky.

“What is it?” Vent asked, feeling clueless.

“Do you hear something?” Aile asked as she turned to Vent before looking back at the sky, “I’m not sure if my ears are playing tricks with me, but I think I heard a whirring sound just now.”

A strong breeze blew between them before a big shadow passed above them. Vent looked to the direction where the shadow went and saw a pink plane-like Mechaniloid, “Nope, your ears are just fine.”

Vent and Aile got their buster guns ready as the plane Mechaniloid made a U-turn and headed towards their direction. The Mechaniloid hovered above their heads and opened up the door on the bottom, dropping three metal boxes on them. Vent and Aile moved away just in time before the boxes could squash them flat.

Unnoticed by the two, the bottommost and topmost boxes and fired out blue elliptical projectiles at them. Vent was pushed back by the impact, making him miss the Mechaniloid as he was aiming at it. Aile barely dodged it, but the projectile managed to put a scar on her right shoulder armor. Aile released a charged shot to the boxes in order to stop them from sending out projectiles, but instead it exploded and sent the boxes flying towards the Mechaniloid.

 _‘That’s it!’_ Aile turned to Vent, who was shooting the Mechaniloid aimlessly, “Vent, aim for the metal boxes! It’ll make them explode and send them back to the Mechaniloid!”

“Got it?” The Mechaniloid came to drop more boxes on top of Vent, who jumped away to dodge. Vent quickly aimed for the bottommost box, but his shot just bounced away before the projectiles it sent knocked him and Aile.

“W-What? But I thought…” Aile got up slowly to her feet, wincing in pain, _‘It worked like a charm before, but why did Vent’s shot just bounced back just then?’_ Aile saw that Vent was already standing and was still shooting at the boxes, until one of the shots hit the topmost box before they exploded, sending the boxes flying towards the Mechaniloid, “I got it now!”

“Now what?” Vent asked, turning to Aile in annoyance, “Got any other brilliant plans, genius?”

“Yes! And this time I’m sure it’ll work!” Aile replied, getting annoyed as well with Vent’s attitude, “We have to shoot the box which doesn’t send those projectiles at us!”

“Well, this better works!” Vent said in annoyance before turning back to the Mechaniloid, which had dropped more boxes in front of them, _‘Shoot the box which doesn’t send out projectiles…’_ Vent watched closely and saw that the middle box and the top box were about to send out projectiles, “There!”

Vent and Aile released their charged shots, making the boxes explode before sending them towards the Mechaniloid. The plane-like Mechaniloid was still hovering above them, but its flying was becoming a little unstable. It flew a little bit away from them before moving more boxes on the ground.

Before more projectiles were shot out, Vent and Aile had fired another charged shot. The explosion had sent the boxes flying once more, hitting the doors where the metal boxes came from. As damaged as it was now, the plane-like Mechaniloid still had the energy left to keep itself hovering in the air.

“When will this thing ever give up!?” Vent yelled angrily as he saw that the Mechaniloid was still hovering above them.

“Yaaah!!!” A voice was heard before a blond man in red armor and a dark visor over his eyes jumped down, smashing a green saber towards the Mechaniloid and sent it crashing to the ground next to the two transporters.

“That such power… Is that the power of a Biometal?” Aile commented as she looked at the damage done to the Mechaniloid.

“It looks like you two came in contact with the Biometal too,” The man turned to the two transporters before transforming back into the form they were familiar with, “Vent, Aile…”

“Boss!” Vent and Aile ran over to their friend and boss, feeling glad.

“When the Mavericks had me cornered, the Biometal suddenly started to shine,” Giro pulled out a red Biometal from his pocket, “The next moment, I was fighting them off in that form. I knew we were hauling something important. But I had no idea of the power that was hidden in that package.”

“Wait, how do you know about the Biometal?” Aile asked.

“Ah… Well…” Giro rubbed the back of his head nervously while turning away from the two, “I heard about it when I got the request. They told me to keep it quiet because it would be too risky to let anyone know what was inside.”

Aile nodded in understanding, “I see…”

Giro let out a sigh before turning to them with a smile, “At least we know the two Biometal fragments are safe now. I’m going to use the transerver to go back to Guardian HQ. I’ll be waiting. Don’t take too long.”

“It sounds like you managed to meet up with Giro,” Prairie said through the communication devices as she sighed in relief, “That’s a relief. Oh, be sure to go to the transerver in the back room and send confirmation to HQ that the mission has been completed.”

“Got it!” Vent replied before cutting the communication, “Come on, we still have to take the Guardian’s test now.”

“Yeah,” Aile nodded, “I wonder what kind of test they are going to give us…”

“I won’t need to worry about it at all! I’m sure we’ll both pass!” Vent said confidently before heading towards the transerver room in the back of the area.


	4. The Guardians

Vent and Aile went through the door on the opposite side of the transerver room, which led them to the city. Far away from their location, they could see buildings in various heights along with a few people doing their activities in peace. As they were about to head out, the communication devices went on.

 _“Hold on. It looks like Slither Inc.’s security force is starting to patrol the area,”_ Prairie’s voice was heard from the other side.

“Patrols?” Aile turned to Vent, who had his head turned to her as well, “That’s the first time we’ve ever heard of them doing those.”

“Slither Inc. must have already heard about the Maverick attack. If you stay transformed, they might think you’re in league with the Mavericks and attack you on sight. I’m sure the people around town will also find it hard to approach you if you look like that. In any case, it’s too dangerous to walk around town transformed. Be careful,” Prairie explained before cutting off the communication.

Vent and Aile transformed back into their human forms before a Guardian approached them, “You're going to undertake the trial for permission to enter HQ right?” Vent and Aile nodded in reply, “My name is Dorado. There are four Guardians hidden like me throughout town. If you can find all of us, you pass the test,” Dorado moved aside and made a way for the two transporters, “Let the trial begin! Good luck!”

“Thanks!” Aile replied before she turned to Vent, “To speed things up, let’s split up and find those Guardians.”

“Do we have to?” Vent complained, getting a glare from Aile, “R-Right! I’ll go! I’ll go!”

Vent backed away from Aile out of fear, before he ran into the city. Aile watched him go before letting out a sigh, “Seriously… Being with him sometimes makes me feel like I’m pampering a kid!” Aile let out another sigh before she walked into the city.

An hour had passed since Vent and Aile started the trial for the permission to enter Guardian HQ. Vent was the first to find a Guardian, whose name was Oelliet, who was hiding in a house near the point where he started. Meanwhile, Aile had already found Carrelet in a small house and Congre, who was hiding away from the Slither Inc.’s patrol team. Aile was crawling through a series of pipe holes when she noticed a big man in the green Guardian outfit sitting right next to the last pipe hole.

“Ah! You’re a Guardian too, right?” Aile asked as she rose to her feet.

“You’re right! The name’s Thon, and congrats for findin’ me, little miss!” The big man, Thon, offered a hand for her to shake, “I wish we had more of your kind in the Guardians. But whether you decide to join us or not is up to you. I’ll be headin’ back. See ya later!”

With Thon teleported away, Prairie contacted Aile through the communication device on her ear, _“It looks like you and Vent found them all. Head to Area C-2 and get the certification for passing the test. That will conclude your trial.”_

“Alright, thanks Prairie!” Aile cut off the communication, “Wait, if I found three of them, then…” With a sly grin on her face, Aile reached out for the communication device once more, “Hey Vent! Looks like I win!”

 _“Huh? Wait, who told you that this is a competition about who finds the most Guardians?”_ Vent asked from the other side, along with some dog barking in the background, _“H-Hey! Cut it out! I’m going out already!”_

“Vent, did something happen? Or perhaps you’re doing something silly again?” Aile asked, noticing that the dog barking sound was slowly fading.

 _“Nothing! So, what’s next? Can we go to the HQ now?”_ Vent asked impatiently.

“Just one more thing. Go to Area C-2 to get the certification, then we can go,” Aile replied, “I’ll go on ahead and wait for you there, but don’t you dare making me wait long!”

 _“I promise, I won’t! I’m already in the area… wait! I think I saw the Guardian over there! Okay, race you there!”_ Vent said quickly before cutting off the communication.

“Hey! That’s not fair! I don’t even know where you are!” Aile complained, but got no answer as Vent had already cut the communication and sighed in frustration, “You’re so childish!” Aile said angrily before running towards the meeting point, where the Guardian, Dorado, was waiting.

As Aile approached them, she saw that Dorado wasn’t on his own. Vent was already there with him, looking at her with a grin and a peace sign, “I beat you here!”

“Whatever…” Aile completely ignored Vent before turning to Dorado, “Are you here to give us the certification?”

Dorado nodded in reply before he pulled out a white stuffed animal, which had many stitches on it, “Here, take this.”

“You’re kidding…” Vent commented in disbelief as he saw Aile taking the stuffed animal from the Guardian, “That’s our certification?”

“You better take care of that,” Dorado said as he turned to Vent, feeling offended, “It’s one of Prairie’s most prized possessions. Anyway, that concludes your trial. You can now use the transerver to go to the Guardian HQ.”

“This is so cute!” Aile commented as she hugged the stuffed animal, “I hope you don’t mind with me holding it!”

“Sure… Just suit yourself,” Vent replied and saw Aile kept holding the stuffed animal as they walked back towards the transerver and smiled, _‘As a tomboy as she is on the outside, Aile is still a girl in the inside…’_

As they reached the transerver, they sent the mission report before the teleported themselves into the Guardian HQ. Once they arrived at the HQ’s transerver room, they saw that there were Giro, Prairie and another Guardian in the room. Vent noticed the glass wall on the opposite side of the room, which had the sight of the blue sky along with some clouds, and ran towards it.

“Wow, an airship?” Vent leaned on the glass, completely ignoring the other people in the room, “I certainly wasn’t expecting an airship, but this is so cool!”

“The Guardians have to explore the world, so we need a convenient method of staying mobile,” Prairie shortly explained.

“Oh, I think I have something you should have, Prairie,” Vent reached for his pockets and pulled out a chip before handing it over to Prairie, “This is the chip we found when we were out there.”

“And as for the certification that we passed the trial…” Aile looked down to the stuffed animal she was holding in her arms before handing it to Prairie, “Is this it?”

Prairie took the stuffed animal with a smile on her face, “Yes, that was a gift from Sis. It holds a lot of memories for me. Thank you for bringing it back.”

Giro sighed in irritation before turning to Vent, “Vent! You can’t just call her by her first name! Got it? Hmph, kids…”

“Don’t worry about it Giro,” Prairie turned to Giro with a smile while holding the stuffed animal in her arms, “I want to apologize for the grave danger I put you three in. Let’s meet at the command center and I will explain everything there. Once you’re out of this room, turn to the right.”

The Guardians went out of the transerver room, and followed by Vent and Aile. The two headed towards the command center, where Prairie and Giro were waiting. Prairie was sitting at the main hub with Giro watching her behind her chair. When they noticed the two new Guardian members came in, they turned to them.

“Let me take this opportunity to welcome you to Guardian Headquarters. And…” Prairie rose from her seat, “I am Prairie, the commander of the Guardians.”

“EEEHHH!?” Vent and Aile yelled in unison out of surprise.

“The commander of all the Guardians!? T-Then that means…” Vent turned to Giro, who nodded at him.

“Yes, she’s a very important client,” Giro’s expression turned into an angry one, “Which is exactly why I want you two to call her by her proper title.”

“How could a girl our age be commanding the Guardians?” Aile asked, still in disbelief.

“It all started with the sentient machines, known as Mavericks, continue to attack people,” Prairie started, “This terrible situation should not even exist. Hundreds of years ago, man and machine put aside their differences and agreed to a truce. The Guardians have continued to investigate the root cause behind the current Maverick outbreaks. One day we found a research lab belonging to a certain scientist.”

“A ‘certain scientist’?” Vent and Aile asked in unison.

“The first commander of the Guardians… The one who disappeared,” Prairie lowered her head, “She was my Sis.”

“So you took over when she was gone…” Vent concluded, getting a nod from Prairie.

“And we were hauling the Biometal that you found at the research lab,” Giro added, getting another nod from Prairie.

“A long time ago, the world humans and machines was saved by a group of legends,” Prairie turned away from the three and looked up to the sky through the glass in the room as she continued, “Biometal are fragments containing the consciousness of those legendary heroes. There might be some hint regarding the Maverick outbreaks in the data stored at the lab,” Prairie turned back to the group, “Fleuve’s personal laboratory is right next to the transerver room. Take the Biometal data there for analysis. I’ll be here analyzing that computer chip that you brought back.”

Vent and Aile followed Giro to a short trip towards Fleuve’s lab, where the old Reploid was doing some analysis on Model Z, “Oh, good, good. I have been waiting for you two! Now, where is this fragment of Biometal?”

“Here,” Vent pulled out Model X from his pocket.

Fleuve took Model X from Vent’s hand before returning Model Z to Giro. The old Reploid put the Biometal on table in front of a virtual keyboard and began typing on his computer and codes started appearing line by line on the screen above it, along with part descriptions of the Biometal. Once the data stopped appearing, Fleuve took the Biometal and handed it back to Vent, “Data transfer complete. Much appreciated! You can take the Biometal back now.”

The alarm suddenly went off, “W-What’s going on?” Aile asked as she turned to Vent and Giro.

“Mavericks detected in Area D! Mission objectives will be relayed on arrival. Move out and await further orders,” The voice of the operator was heard through the intercom, “I repeat! Mavericks detected in Area D! Mission objectives will be relayed on arrival. Move out and await further orders.”

“Area D…” Giro thought for a moment and noticed something, “That’s right next to the Slither Inc. head office!”

“It’s too dangerous for you to go back to town now. We must hurry to the command center!” Fleuve suggested before the four of them headed towards the command center.

In the command center, Prairie noticed the four came in and turned her chair around, “It looks like our enemy is on the move.”

“’Enemy’? So they’re not just random Maverick attacks?” Giro asked, getting a nod from Prairie as her expression turned serious.

“After I did a little snooping on the chip Vent and Aile brought back, I found that there is a program controlling the Mavericks,” Prairie started, “There is someone behind the Maverick attacks, but they’re just making them seem like random raids. They must be trying to steal the Biometal you were carrying.”

“I knew it…” Vent curled his hands into fists in anger, “Then what about the Serpent’s security force? Where are they? Why haven’t they arrived yet!?”

Prairie paused for a moment before answering, “It takes time for them to be recalled to the head office from their patrol routes in the city. Guardian ground forces are moving to intercept the Mavericks in Area D.”

A light lit up on one of the operators’ screens, “Maquereau from the ground forces reporting! The Mavericks are heading for the residential district. Troops are exchanging fire on the highway in Area D!”

“No!” It was Aile’s turn to get angry, “Then, what about the people in town!?” Aile turned to Vent, “Come on, Vent! We have to do something!”

As Vent and Aile were running towards the door, Fleuve stopped them, “Vent!? Aile!? Where are you going!?”

“With the help from the Biometal, we can fight! We can help those people!” Vent replied and saw that Giro had come over to them, “Boss! We have to go and help them!”

“Think, you two! That Biometal is exactly what they want! You’ll play straight into their hands if you go out there to fight!” Giro rejected, holding their arms to prevent them from going.

“You saw it, right? You must’ve seen it ten years ago…” Vent lowered his head, “My mom was killed by Mavericks right in front of me, but if the security force… if Serpent’s security force had come sooner, see would have been alive today! They had the power to prevent that, but they did nothing!”

Vent’s angry yell had silenced the whole room and Aile was the first one to speak, “I agree with Vent… The people are going to get hurt when the Mavericks reach them! We can’t just sit here and watch! We’ll take down every last one of them!”

Vent nodded in agreement before he and Aile broke free from Giro’s grip, “Let’s go, Aile! We have some Mavericks to destroy!”

“Vent! Aile!” Prairie called out, but none of them listened and went out through the door.

Giro let out a sigh before putting a hand on his forehead, “Why won’t they ever listen…?”


	5. Goodbye Old Friend

“Vent! Aile! Hold on!” Vent and Aile, who were running ahead while merged with Model X, stopped and turned to see Giro, merged with Model Z, running after them.

“Boss, we…” Vent started, but Giro had predicted what he was about to say and shook his head.

“No, I’m not going to stop you two. I know that even if I do, you will keep insisting to help,” Giro told the two, “Come on, let’s go!”

The two new Guardians nodded in agreement and let Giro moved ahead with them following him a bit farther behind. The sounds of buster shots were heard as Vent and Aile shot the Mavericks which stood their way as they followed Giro towards the Slither Inc.’s head office. As they were being surrounded by more and more Mavericks, they slowly lost track of where Giro went, but instead found an injured Guardian on his knees.

The Guardian looked up as he noticed the two coming, “Hey, are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” The Guardian answered Aile’s question before turning to the direction opposite of where Vent and Aile came from, “Another transporter came and rescued me before going on ahead alone. You have to help him!”

“We’re on it!” Vent nodded and turned to Aile, “Come on, let’s hurry! Boss might need our help!”

They continued ahead, but were stopped when two fly-shaped Mechaniloid came and blocked their way, “Now, what’s this? Just how many of them are there!?”

“I don’t know!” Vent replied, aiming his buster gun at one of the Mechaniloids, “I don’t care how many of them here, but I care about blasting them to pieces before they reached the residential district!”

One of the Mechaniloid sent out a few smaller fly Mechaniloids at the two, who dodged them by jumping away, which made themselves open for the other Mechaniloid as it had sent out a barrage of magenta-colored energy beams at them. Aile managed to cut some damage by doing a midair backflip before landing safely on her feet. Vent landed hard on his back, but managed to land a weak charged shot at the first Mechaniloid’s abdomen.

Aile aimed her shots on the second Mechaniloid’s wings, hoping that breaking them would make the Mechaniloid crash to the ground. A medium sized charged shot from Aile’s buster gun managed to crack the Mechaniloid’s left wing before it crashed and exploded. Meanwhile, Vent released a charged shot towards the first Mechaniloid’s chest and went through its body, destroying it completely.

After transforming his buster back to his arm, Vent turned to the city below him, _‘Serpent’s security force… why are they taking so much time coming back from their patrols!?’_ Vent turned to Aile, “Come on, let’s hurry! The building should be nearby!”

“Right!” Aile nodded before the two continued on towards the Slither Inc. head office’s entrance, where three figures were standing in front another figure that was familiar to them.

“Is that… Giro!?” Aile asked as Vent and Aile ran over to the group.

There was a big man standing right next to Giro, who was lying down while wincing in pain, with one of his hand extended above the blond man. Behind the big man, a shorter male Reploid were standing while holding a green-bladed scythe along with a female Reploid with a green staff in her hand.

“Ah, you’ve come. Model X, the blue Mega Men,” The big man spoke up, “It’s time to see the legend in action,” The man held his hand above Giro, who were struggling in pain.

“Ugh… Stay… away… It’s a trap…” Giro whispered weakly before his body started glowing, “Aaargh!”

The man along with the two Reploids teleported away before Giro stood up, looking at Vent and Aile with glowing red eyes, “B-Boss! What happened!?”

“S-Shoot… me…!” Giro replied shakily before he pulled out his saber while shaking.

“What!?” Aile was shocked to hear what her boss and friend had said, “B-But Giro… we don’t… we don’t want to shoot you!”

Giro didn’t respond, but instead he charged in at Aile with his saber at his side. Once he was a few meters away from her, he jumped and raised his saber above his head. Aile aimed at Giro, but her arms were shaking as she hadn’t got the heart to shoot her own friend. She closed her eyes and braced for impact, which never came. She reopened her eyes to see Vent, his back turned to her, with his buster gun at the direction where Giro was.

“I’m… sorry…” Vent whispered before dropping his arms, “I don’t know… I don’t know what to do… I don’t want to hurt you, Boss… but I also don’t want to see Aile got hurt…”

“Vent…” Aile saw as Vent lowered his head before she noticed that Giro had charged in towards her and Vent with his saber right in front of him, “Look out!”

Aile pushed Vent out of the way before she sidestepped to dodge the attack. Vent and Aile distanced themselves from Giro, who had stabbed the ground with his saber and made pillars of energy come shooting out from the ground. Vent and Aile took the hits and fell to the ground, their armors started cracking.

“Please…” Vent closed his eyes and aimed his buster in front of him, “Stop it, Boss! Please stay with us!”

Vent released a charged shot, which hit Giro on his chest and knocked him back. Vent heard to sound of him falling and opened his eyes to see that Giro was on one knee, using his saber to support himself. Aile helped Vent up before the two of the approached Giro, but the blond man was struck by purple lighting as the two Guardians stepped closer.

“Girooo!” Aile yelled as she and Vent ran over to him.

Suddenly, the three teleported back right in front of them and the big man was the first one to speak up as he looked down at Vent, Aile, and Giro, “Model X, the blue Mega Men… Model Z, the red Mega Man… Such disappointments,” The man let out a disappointed sigh, “The Biometal the Guardians found might as well have been tin scrapings.”

Vent quickly stood up and aimed his buster at them with both of his arms shaking, “Who are you!?”

“The name is Serpent. I rule all that lies before me. I am the Model W Mega Man!” The man, Serpent, replied before he revealed a triangular object in his hand.

“Serpent!?” Aile stood up in surprise, “You’re the president of Slither Inc.!”

Serpent let out a chuckle, “I see my reputation precedes me. You’d do well to remember me, blue Mega Man!”

Aile aimed her own buster at Serpent, her arms shaking, “You’re the one behind the Mavericks and what happened to Giro!”

“You two are shaking…” The female Reploid behind Serpent started in a whisper, “Is it anger… Or fear?”

“Hmph, at least the red one was more of a challenge than this one,” The male Reploid spat out, angering both Vent and Aile.

“What!? We’ll show you just how strong we are!” Vent and Aile charged their busters, aiming them at Serpent and the two Reploid behind him.

“Prometheus,” Serpent turned to the male Reploid.

“Ah, poor blue Mega Men,” The male Reploid, Prometheus, said as he got his scythe ready, “What you mistake for courage is nothing more than mere recklessness.”

“QUIET!!!” Vent and Aile yelled in unison before releasing their shots, but Prometheus swung his scythe and reflected the shots back to them.

“N-No…” Vent whispered weakly.

“Chosen Ones like us, who can control the Biometal’s M. E. G. A. System and transform, are called Mega Men. The chosen few are the shepherds for guiding the flock in a new world,” Serpent raised a hand and looked down at Vent and Aile in disgust, “But you’ve proven with your pathetic abilities that not all Mega Men are fit to rule.”

Lighting struck down on Vent and Aile, transforming them back into their human forms. Their Biometal, Model X, fell between them and were heavily damaged from their previous battle with Giro. Serpent saw them collapsed on the ground, powerless, before turning to the female Reploid standing next to Prometheus.

“Pandora, pull the password data out of them,” Serpent ordered.

“Understood…” The female Reploid, Pandora, replied before her left and right head pieces separated and hovered above the two Biometals.

Prometheus yawned out of boredom, “That was far too easy. What should we do with them?”

“Leave them to the Mavericks and carry on as you were,” Serpent turned away from Vent and Aile, who had shocked looks on their faces, “A battle between the evil Mavericks and the good Slither Inc. security force. Classic. The people of this town will go on with their lives as usual. We need the facade of peace to continue on just a little bit longer,” Serpent turned back to the Guardians with an evil smile on his face, “Eventually they will all become a glorious sacrifice for Model W.”

“W-what… did you say…?” Aile asked weakly.

Pandora’s head pieces went back to their places, “Password data retrieval complete…”

Serpent laughed in satisfaction, “Now we have all of the passwords. Let’s go. It’s time to

proceed with Project Haven.”

Serpent and Pandora teleported away, leaving Prometheus on his own as he approached the Guardians, “It seems the heroic legends of Model X and Z are nothing more than that, legends,” Prometheus turned away before he teleported away.

Vent tried getting up, but failed as he fell down on his chest, “Argh… My body… can’t move…”

“Is this it…? Is this… the end… for us…?” Aile asked weakly, slowly turning her head towards Vent and Giro.

Giro moved a bit before he raised his head, “Never… give up… You still have something… you must protect…”

“Boss… You’re awake!” Vent turned to Giro with a weak smile.

Giro turned to the red Biometal next to him, “Model Z… listen… Don’t worry about me…”

 _“Do you know what you_ _’re asking? Your body is already beyond recovery._ _If you transform back, you will not survive the wounds_ _…”_ Model Z asked, getting a weak nod from Giro.

“I know… That’s why… please… lend your strength… to these two…” Giro replied before turning to Vent, and then to Aile.

Model Z was hesitant at first, but then replied, “Alright, I will…”

“Vent… Aile…” Giro let out a weak smile as his body started glowing, “Don’t… give up… and stay strong…” Giro’s body glowed before it disappeared, leaving a sphere-shaped light before it floated away.

Aile had crawled towards Giro and tried reaching out to the light, but it was too late as it had floated away, “Giro… GIRO!!!” Tears started pouring out from her eyes as she and Vent cried over the loss of their boss, and their best friend.

“Boss…” Vent’s tears started falling, “Why…? First my mom… Now Boss… I can’t protect anyone…”

 _“This is your last chance. If you combine the power from the two_ _Biometal fragments, you might be able to transform again. I can_ _’t be certain_ _whether or not you_ _two will be able to bear the strain when the two fragments are_ _combined_ _,”_ Model X stated.

A group of Mavericks came and surrounded the two Guardians, _“_ _It_ _’s your decision. You_ _two must make it_ _on your own. Do you have the will to_ _fight? Do you have what it takes to continue where that brave man left off?_ _”_ Model Z asked.

“Model X…” Vent and Aile said in unison before they both grabbed Model X, “Model Z…” Vent and Aile grabbed Model Z.

“Power…” Vent continued.

“We need your power,” It was Aile’s turn to continue.

“We need to protect the people, all of them! Give us the strength we need to fight for those we care about!” Vent and Aile continued to say in unison before they were engulfed with bright white light, which also engulfed the Mavericks as well.

Red armor started forming on Vent and Aile as they both held the two Biometals together with their eyes shut. Some circuits glowed on their foreheads before a red helmet was formed on their heads. Golden hair came out from the back of their helmets before they reopened their eyes, which were glowing in their original green color. The light disappeared, leaving Vent and Aile in their new red armor and weapons. Vent held a green saber in his hand, while held a white buster in hers.

 _“Our strength…”_ Model X’s voice echoed in their heads.

 _“Is yours! And Giro’s spirit is also with you!”_ Model Z’s voice echoed in their heads as well.

Vent turned to Aile with a determined smile, “Let’s go!”

The two dashed away from the head office’s building, but stopped once they saw an airship coming from the street below them. Aile looked up, and saw a familiar logo on it, “That’s a Slither Inc. airship!” Vent and Aile chased it, but it had flown higher and higher, “No! Giro… we… we…”

 _“The battle between the Mavericks and the security force has_ _begun. You can_ _’t stay there. It_ _’s too dangerous. Return to HQ immediately_ _,”_ Prairie’s voice was heard from the communication devices on their ears.

“Prairie… let us fight. We must… protect them…” Vent curled his hands into fists, “Every last one of them.”

The two went back to the HQ through the transerver. In their ZX form, they headed straight towards the command center and told Prairie about everything which happened. About Giro, about the two mysterious Reploids who came along with Serpent, and about Serpent’s plans he called as Project Haven.

“Vent… Aile…” Prairie looked at the two Guardians worriedly.

“We’re fine. We can’t sit on the sidelines crying while the world falls to pieces. Serpent said he would sacrifice the country to power Model W. We have to keep fighting,” Vent said in determination.

Aile nodded in agreement, “We must stop Serpent. Giro would want it that way. That’s why he gave us Model Z,” Aile let out a sad sigh, “Giro had saved my life again… But why did I have to be the one to make it out alive?”

“Aile… Don’t start thinking like that,” Prairie responded, “Giro gave his life protecting you. Don’t ever forget how much he cared about you and Vent.”

“Boss…” Vent lowered his head.

“We’ve analyzed the data and found out a few things,” Prairie changed the subject, “Model W has the power to corrupt machines and humans alike. That’s what has been causing the Maverick outbreaks. But Serpent only has the Model W Biometal fragment now.”

“He’s going to try and sacrifice everyone,” Aile added, “We won’t let that happen! Where is the Model W Core now?”

“I’m not sure…” Prairie frowned, “Some of the data was corrupt and we couldn’t complete the analysis. What I do know is that the six passwords encoded into the Biometal fragments are the keys. Combined they will unlock the seal that contains the core. I managed to get Model X and Model Z first…”

“But Slither Inc. found the other four,” Vent finished, “It looks like we don’t have much choice. We have to fight and take them by force!” Vent raised his fists in determination.

Prairie nodded in reply, “I’m going to simulate the data and narrow down the Biometal locations using the Maverick signatures. Once I get a mission plan together, I’ll add that information to the transerver. For the time being, I want you two to get some rest. We have two vacant rooms in the HQ, just below this floor.”

“Okay,” Aile replied with a smile, “Thanks Prairie! And good night!”

“Good night to you two! I hope you have a nice rest!” Prairie replied as she saw the two left the command center.


	6. The Power Plant

A few days had passed since Giro died, and since Vent and Aile joined the Guardians. Prairie was still trying to pinpoint some signatures left by the Biometals in Serpent’s hand, leaving Vent and Aile to go back to the transporters to work while waiting for Prairie’s information about the Biometals’ locations.

“Thank you for using Giro Express Transporters’ service!” Aile said cheerfully before she cut the communication on the device on her ear as she came out of the staff room.

“Looks like somebody’s enjoying herself…” Vent said bluntly, getting an angry glared from Aile.

“At least _you_ do something useful here while waiting for a mission call from Prairie!” Aile let out a sigh in irritation, “I’m impressed that Giro can handle someone as lazy and rude as you…”

“I’m not _that_ rude, okay?” Vent protested, not noticing that a woman had come into the office.

“Excuse me…” The woman started, but took a step back as she was surprised when Vent suddenly turned to her.

“What!?” Vent asked angrily, but noticed that he was talking to a costumer.

“Told ya…” Aile said mockingly before she stepped closer to the woman and pushed Vent away, “Excuse me, please forgive my friend’s rudeness. Can I help you?”

While was talking to the woman, Vent groaned and went into the staff room. Seeing that the other transporters were busy on the field with deliveries, he sat alone on a short stack of boxes before letting out an irritated sigh.

 _“Vent? Vent, can you hear me?”_ Prairie’s voice was heard from Vent’s communication device.

“Prairie?” Vent reached for the communication device on his ear, “Is it time for our mission yet? Have you got any Biometal readings?”

 _“Yes, I’ve got one close to your location. The signal is coming from an offline power plant on the edge of the city. I want you and Aile to go there and get the Biometal back,”_ Prairie ordered.

“Alright, we’ll be on our way!” Vent replied before turning off the communication, “Now to get Aile…” Vent went out of the staff room and saw the woman from earlier leaving.

“Thank you! Please come and use our services again!” Aile said cheerfully as she waved at the woman. She turned around and saw Vent as he had just come out from the staff room, “You’d better watch and learn, or you’ll never be able to handle costumers!”

“Yeah, yeah… Now put that aside, because now I have something more important,” Vent looked at her in a serious expression, “We need to head for the power plant now. Prairie’s orders.”

“Okay,” Aile nodded, “Let’s go!”

Vent and Aile headed towards the power plant, still in their human forms, and transformed into their ZX form once their arrived at the power plant. From outside the plant’s building, machines were seen still operating and some Galleon Hunters were running around guarding the plant from any intruders.

 _“This is weird… The plant… It’s still active and producing energy. According to the database, it has been offline ever since the Maverick raid. There’s something fishy going on. Be careful you two,”_ Prairie explained through the communicators before ending the connection.

“She’s got a point,” Vent pointed at the operating machine right in front of the fence guarded by two Galleons, “That machine is still running.”

“Come on, Vent. I think we can find out why this plant is still active now if we can sneak inside,” Aile went ahead, pulling out her ZX buster.

“Now, don’t start the party without me!” Vent pulled out his ZX saber and followed Aile.

Aile ran ahead and sometimes hid behind some pillars when she saw the guarding Galleons passed by. Once they had passed, Aile snuck behind them and ran closer to the fence blocking the building. She hid behind an offline generator while aiming her buster at the Galleons, but pulled it back when she felt something passed by.

“MOVE IT!!!” Vent yelled, getting the attention of the guards. He swung his saber, cutting the Galleons into half in mere seconds before he charged in towards the two guarding the plant building’s entrance, “Get out of the way!” Vent cut through the Galleons, clearing out the whole area before he turned to the offline generator, where Aile was hiding, “Come on! I’ve cleared the area!”

Aile face-palmed and let out a sigh, “What part does he not understand about ‘sneaking in’?”

Vent and Aile went through the plant, slashing and blasting through the Mavericks they saw as there weren’t any places good enough for both of them to hide in the building. As Vent jumped to destroy a hermit crab Mechaniloid, he landed on something which had thought to be another platform, but it suddenly moved and almost made him fall.

“Vent, are you okay?” Aile called out and saw that Vent was jumping on gears, “Vent, those are gears! What are you doing there!?”

“I don’t know!” Vent jumped to the next gear, “I just landed here!” Vent jumped to the next gears before landing on a still platform, “Safe!” Vent turned back to Aile, “Aile, you go on ahead! I think I saw another way on the platform below you!”

“Okay!” Vent heard Aile’s reply before he headed deeper into the area he was in.

He slashed through a yellow sculpture-like Mechaniloid before it could send out any electric balls at him and went through the door at the back of the area. The room had moving conveyor belts, along with an operating machine which kept dropping different kinds of incomplete Mechaniloid. Vent looked far into the room, which had another door with a Galleon Hunter blocking it.

 _‘That door looks fishy to me,’_ Vent thought before he proceed through to the door and cut the Galleon’s head from behind before going through the door. Machines were giving out loud whirring noises, but a single panel in front of a machine caught Vent’s eye, “Is that a control panel?” Vent approached the panel and examined it, “Let’s see…” Vent pressed a virtual button on it and suddenly the machines stopped giving out loud noises and stopped completely, “Yep, I guess that answers the question!”

Vent back-tracked the whole area, until he stopped when he reencountered the same yellow sculpture Mechaniloid, “Wait, didn’t I just…” The Mechaniloid opened up its mouth and electricity started forming in its mouth, “N-No, wait!” The Mechaniloid sent out an electric ball at him, sending him towards a hole behind him. He reached for the edge, but it was too late and he fell on top of something that was half soft and half hard.

“Ow…” A familiar voice was heard from below Vent.

“Aile!” Vent quickly got off her before he helped her up, “Sorry, I didn’t see you there! But then I thought you already went on ahead…”

“W-Well, I had some troubles getting down here…” Aile replied before turning away and walked ahead, “Come on, let’s get moving!”

Vent only gave her a silent nod before following her into a door, which led them to a room with spherical lights inside tubes in it, “What’s this? There are tiny balls of light circling around the facility.”

The communication turned on, _“This signature… It can’t be… Cyber-elves!?”_

“Cyber-elves? Prairie, what’s a Cyber-elf?” Aile asked in confusion as Vent watched the lights in the tubes.

 _“Sentient programs created with pure energy and made in the image of elves. I don’t understand why there are so many of them here. That power plant... It must be using the Cyber-elves to generate power!”_ Prairie replied and explained.

“So that’s the secret behind this place…” Vent responded as he approached one of the elves, “These little things could still produce some power for this plant even after I shut down the machines…”

“Wait, so you’re the one who stopped the machines?” Aile asked Vent, who nodded in reply, “But how?”

“I found a room with a control panel in it. I thought that I had shut the whole plant down with it!” Vent answered, not bothering to look away from the elves.

 _“But this is unbelievable!”_ Prairie half-yelled through the communicators, _“Cyber-elves are all sentient beings like the rest of us! Please, you must shut down that power plant!”_

“We’re on it,” Aile replied before cutting off the connection, “Come on, let’s get out of here through the back door!”

Vent and Aile headed towards the door on the other side of the room, only to find that the back door was guarded by more Mavericks. Aile’s charged shot managed to open up a path for them before they dashed away from the Mavericks and headed out through the door before the Mavericks could ambush them.

Bright reddish orange light almost blindfolded them as they were covered in a blanket of reddish orange sky. Far on the west side, the sun was setting as day was slowly turning into night. The two dashed through the sunset, but Aile had stopped for a moment to take a good look at the sky and the sunset.

“Look Vent! It’s the sunset!” Vent stopped running and stopped to look at the sunset as well.

“Yeah… And it’s the first sunset we see after a while…” As Vent and Aile were enjoying the sunset, a green winged Reploid landed behind them, “Who’s there!?”

“I’m an artificial Mega Man created to draw out the power of the Biometal. I’m the Model H Pseudoroid, Hivolt,” The Reploid took off and hovered above them, “Have no fear. It’ll all be over soon. You’ll just feel a little jolt before you sleep forever!”

“You wish!” Aile rejected before she pulled out her ZX buster.

Aile released a few shots at Hivolt, but the Reploid flew higher before the attacks could hit him. Once he flew lower, Aile took another chance to shot Hivolt, but he flew much lower instead and the attack hit Vent instead, who was behind Hivolt to attack him with his ZX saber. Vent was thrown back from the shot, but didn’t take much damage.

“Get out of the way, Vent! I’m trying to shoot him!” Aile told Vent, not bother turning to him as she was aiming at Hivolt.

“And I’m trying to mince him from behind!” Vent yelled angrily, making Aile turn away from Hivolt.

“Well, then you’re not helping at all!” Aile yelled back before noticing that Hivolt had landed right in front of her, “W-What!?”

“Never turn away from an enemy, girl!” Hivolt raised his wings before slashing Aile with them, “That’s the most fatal mistake in a battle!” Hivolt knocked her away before taking off once more.

“Darn it!” Vent approached Aile as she got back to her feet and looked up at Hivolt, _‘I can’t get close to Hivolt when Aile’s aiming with her buster, but I can’t aim well if I use my own ZX buster!’_

“Stand back, Vent,” Aile suddenly said, but she was still looking at Hivolt as his legs detached themselves before they circled around him, “Charge your saber, but don’t use it yet. I have a plan.”

“O… kay…” Vent doubtfully nodded before backing away and charged his saber.

Aile aimed her buster at Hivolt, _‘I need to wait for him to come to me before I can shoot him. If I hit him hard enough, I think I can knock him away for Vent to send the finishing blow. I just hope… he can move fast enough before Hivolt flies away…’_

Electricity surrounded Hivolt’s legs before they shot out electric beams at them. Vent and Aile jumped away to dodge and Aile tried her best to lock her aim on Hivolt as she dodged. With electricity still surrounding Hivolt’s legs as they kept circling him, Hivolt charged in at her. Aile took the chance to release a powerful charged shot, which knocked Hivolt away.

“Now Vent!” Aile called out and Vent jumped over her with his saber above his head.

“TAKE THIS!!!” Vent slammed his saber hard on Hivolt, pinning him down to the ground for a moment before he took flight once more, “He can still fly!?”

“I think we didn’t hit it hard enough,” Aile turned to Vent, who had jumped towards a broken pillar on the field, “Vent, what are you planning!?”

“I don’t have a plan!” Vent replied, gripping his saber as he pushed himself against the pillar, bouncing him towards Hivolt before he swung his ZX saber and cut Hivolt in half.

“Hah… The energy we’ve produced here is already well on its way to Lord Serpent. All that’s left is for him to hack into the Model W Core. Poor misguided fool. Your end draws near as a new age is beginning!” Hivolt weakly said before exploding, leaving a green Biometal floating on his place.

 _“I am the Biometal of the Wind, Model H. Thank you for saving me, young heroes,”_ The green Biometal, Model H, introduced himself.

“Please, we need your help Model H,” Aile looked up at the Biometal, “We have to defeat Serpent and prevent the resurrection of Model W.”

 _“Do you think that will end this?”_ Model H asked, getting the silence from the two, _“All of this was started by a single man. Even if you destroy the Model W Core and stop Serpent… What’s to stop another madman from rising up and taking his place?”_

“We… don’t know…” Vent lowered his head for a moment before looking back up with a serious expression on his face, “But what we do know is that Serpent is about to destroy the world! We’re the only ones that can stop it now. We can’t just give up!”

“Hmph. Those humans we fought so hard to protect hundreds of years ago have been lulled into a false sense of security by the empty promise of peace. But I still believe our fighting had meaning,” Model H floated closer to the two, “So, young heroes, yes I will lend you my strength. Serpent has separated my data into two halves. There is another Pseudoroid with the other part. If you can defeat it, I will be able to give you my password.”

Vent took Model H with a grin, “Nice! We got the first part of Model H!”

“Okay then, let’s go and find a transerver to report back to the HQ,” Aile replied before they headed towards the transerver room to report and transport them back to the Guardian HQ.

“Man, now I’m beat!” Vent let out a yawn while stretching his arms once they arrived at the HQ. Vent turned to the glass wall and saw that the sky was turning dark, “And it’s already night too!”

“You’re tired, but you barely did anything today. You only did your job during the mission, and that’s all,” Aile simply responded before she headed out of the transerver room.

“Yeah, I barely did anything,” Vent replied as he followed Aile out of the transerver room, “but that battle totally wore…” Vent didn’t get to finish his sentence as a group of Guardians had run past them and stormed the transerver room, “Wait, what did just happen?”

“I have a bad feeling about this…” Aile looked back to the transerver room before turning to Vent, “Come on, I think Prairie knows something about this!”

Vent followed Aile to the command center, where Prairie, the three operators, and a couple of Guardians were, “Prairie, what’s going on?”

“Vent, Aile!” Prairie turned to the two for a moment before turning to the other two Guardians, “I’ll leave the rescue team to the two of you.”

“Yes Commander!” The two Guardians saluted before heading out of the command center.

“Prairie, did something bad happen?” Aile asked worriedly.

“Yes, a fire had broken out just a few hours ago and it seems like there are Mavericks involved in this,” Prairie nodded and explained, “I’ve also detected a Biometal signal near the fire. Since the two of you are here, I want you two to go down there and help!”

“No problem!” Vent said proudly before he and Aile left the command center.


	7. Fire Rescue Mission

“Everyone, this way!” Aile yelled as she and another female Guardian was helping people to get out of the burning building.

Vent came out of the burning building, in his human form, along with a woman whose arm was on Vent’s shoulder, “I need… help…” Vent coughed before handing over the woman to the female Guardian beside Aile, “She had hurt her leg during the fire. I don’t the injury is that bad, but we need to get that injury taken care of!”

“Vent, are there still people in there?” Aile asked, getting a nod from Vent.

“Yes, I think there are still a few more people on the higher floors,” Vent looked back to the burning building, “But I don’t think they’re gonna made it back here in time… The ceilings are about collapse…”

“Vent!” Another Guardian came out of the building and handed him a device before he fell to his knees and coughed hard, “Use… use that… to get the rest… out of the building…”

“Maquereau!” Aile knelt down to the Guardian’s eye level before looking up at the female Guardian, “Chene! Can you take care of the others? I’m going in to help!”

“But Aile! It’s too dangerous! We still have Vent and the other Guardians in there!” The female Guardian, Chene, rejected.

“Sorry…” Maquereau coughed, “They had got out… They had been too long… inside the building…”

“This is bad…” Chene turned to Vent, who had burn marks all over his body and was coughing, before turning back to Aile, “Okay, we’ll take care of things here. You and Vent should go rescue the others and find the Maverick causing this fire!”

“Roger!” Aile rose up to her feet and turned to Vent, “Let’s go!”

“Wait!” A boy ran over to Vent and looked up at him while crying, “My dog… He’s trapped in the basement… Please save him!”

Vent smiled and put a hand on the boy’s head, “Don’t worry, we’ll bring back your dog. I promise you,” Vent turned to Aile, “Come on, we have to hurry!”

Aile nodded and the two of them ran inside the burning building. The two ran up the stairs to the sixth floor and Vent kicked the first door before they went inside and found a boy leaning against the wall under the window. The boy looked up weakly as the two approached him.

“Are you alright?” Aile asked worriedly.

“I’m fine, thank you…” The boy stood up while being supported by Aile as Vent was getting the portable transporter ready, “I think someone is controlling the Mavericks. This fire is his fault! He should be at the top of this building, getting ready to head to the next one over. You've got to teach him that if you play with fire, you get burned!”

“Alright, thanks for the info, kid!” Vent teleported the boy out to safety before he and Aile headed up towards the seventh floor.

Vent tackled the door open and let the smoke came out from the room inside. A coughing sound was head, “Who are you? Did you come to save us?” Vent and Aile went into the room and saw a man inside, “Thank you for saving me!” The man coughed again, “I think I saw something… on the next building… If it’s the Maverick causing this fire, please teach him a lesson!”

“Don’t worry, sir, we’ll take care of the Maverick!” Aile replied before Vent teleported the man out to safety, “Vent, are all the people out?”

“Yeah…” Vent coughed, “We have to get out of the building… and get to that Maverick causing this fire!” Vent coughed once more before leaning on the wall for support, “We can get… to the next building… from the top floor, the eighth floor…”

“Okay, come on! We really need to get you out of here!” Aile put Vent’s arm around her neck, “You’ve been too long here with all this smoke!”

Vent nodded weakly as he and Aile headed towards the top floor. Aile smashed the window with her bare hands to let the smoke out before she and Vent went out of the building through the window. Once they were out of the building, Aile let go of Vent, who lied down on the roof of the building next to the building they were in.

“Thanks…” Vent said as he was gasping for cleaner air, “Now I can breathe…” Vent got back up after a moment, “But I don’t have time for this!”

“Yes, but you should rest for a moment after you inhaled so much smoke while in that building!” Aile told Vent as she pushed him back into sitting position, but he resisted.

“No, I’ll go. I’m already fine now!” Vent pulled out Model X and Model H, “Come on, it’s be faster if we try travelling on the air with this!”

“Okay…” Aile nodded doubtfully before holding the Biometals.

“Rock ON! Model HX!” Green armor covered Vent’s and Aile’s body and a pair of jet wings appeared on their backs.

“Let’s jet! We’ll teach that Maverick a lesson or two!” Vent said in excitement before using his jet wing to do an air dash towards the next building.

“Y-Yeah…” Aile took a few steps forward and looked down from the building before quickly stepping back, _‘I mustn’t look down… I’ll be fine as long as I don’t look down…’_

Aile closed her eyes and used her jet wings to cross to the next building and landed on top of it. She opened her eyes and took more steps to the other end of the building’s roof before closing her eyes once again and crossed to the next building with the jet wings. As she kept repeating the same process, Vent was already far ahead of her.

Vent noticed that Aile wasn’t nearby and turned around, seeing that Aile was far behind him, “Seriously, what’s taking her so long?” Vent let out a sigh before he sat down to wait for her, “If she needs help with flying, then why didn’t she ask me? It’s not like I’m going to make fun of her if she’s afraid of flying…”

It took a while before Aile could reach Vent, who was waiting impatiently for her, “Why are you waiting here for me? You could’ve gone on ahead without me!”

“Yes I could, but I don’t want to,” Vent turned away from her and towards the door behind him before whispering quietly and hoped that she didn’t hear him, “I-I just want to make sure you’re safe…”

“Huh? What was that just now?” Aile walked closer to him, but he didn’t repeat what he had said and shook his head, “Well, whatever excuse you’re having, it had better not be anything stupid!”

“I don’t think it is, but maybe you’ll think that it is,” Vent turned to Aile in a serious expression, “Come on, let’s just forget about this and get into this building. I’ve a feeling that the Maverick responsible for this fire is still inside.”

Aile just shrugged as Vent went through the door before she followed him in. The first room they were in was small and had some black burn marks on the walls. Two burning blocks were stuck on the two holes above their head, seemingly impossible of the blocks to fall on them without any strong force. The wall on the opposite side of the room suddenly broke and a lion-like Pseudoroid with burning mane came in through the hole.

“I came all this way expecting to find great warriors, but you are just children. All this associating with Mavericks and kidnapping people is interfering with my training,” The Pseudoroid let out a sigh.

“Kidnapping? What have you done with everyone!?” Vent asked angrily.

“I have no need to tell you,” The Pseudoroid replied, “Serpent promised to take me beyond the limits of my training and to give me the power of a god if I helped him. It sounded like an excellent proposition. I will do whatever it takes to get power.”

“That’s not true power! You can’t get true power through evil!” Aile rejected.

“You might turn out to be stubborn opponents after all. My Biometal is burning to get a piece of you. The name is Fistleo, I am the Model F Pseudoroid. You are about to find out just how true my power really is!” The Pseudoroid, Fistleo, extended his arm before he charged at Vent and Aile at high speed.

 _‘He’s fast!’_ Aile thought as she and Vent were knocked away by the attack.

A burning aura engulfed Fistleo’s body before he quickly climbed the wall behind him, or what was left of it, and kicked himself into the air while putting his arms in front of him, sending out fire on his path. Vent managed to dodge the fire by rolling away from his previous position before he charged both of his sabers. Aile barely avoided it as she ducked down when Fistleo was charging straight at her.

Once Fistleo landed, Vent did a quick air dash to cut the distance between them and released an electric ball from his shorter saber, which flew right towards Fistleo, catching him off guard and paralyzed him. Vent dashed towards him and let out another electric ball at the Pseudoroid, but this time from his longer saber.

Fistleo was left to be paralyzed again, giving Aile the chance to land a three-slash combo on him. The third slash managed to cut off Fistleo’s arm, but the Pseudoroid still managed to survive. He extended his good arm at Aile and shot out a flamethrower at her.

“Overdrive!” Aile’s body glowed for a moment before swinging her shorter saber, which cut through the flames.

“I-Impossible!” Fistleo looked at her in disbelief.

“Cancel overdrive!” Aile’s body glowed once more before she closed in towards Fistleo.

She swung her shorter saber, leaving a small gash on his chest. She swung her longer saber, cutting through Fistleo’s other arm. She finished her combo as she crossed both of her sabers before dashing closer and swung both of the pink sabers, cutting through Fistleo on his abdomen.

“How could this happen!?” Fistleo asked weakly, “I was transformed into a Pseudoroid… I was supposed to have the power of a god… But I was beaten by little children!” Fistleo roared angrily before his body exploded, leaving an orange Biometal floating on his place.

“Yahoo! Thanks for saving me!” The orange Biometal cheered, “I am the Biometal of the Flame, Model F! Let’s get a move on! Who are we gonna take down next?”

“W-wait! I haven’t even explained anything yet!” Aile said, getting the attention of the Biometal.

“I know, I know, Serpent is up to something sneaky with that Model W. It’s all so complicated. I don’t really know what’s going on. I just know that he used my power to do his dirty work. If you’re out for payback, I’m your model! Got a problem with that?” The Biometal, Model F, turned to Vent.

“N-No! Not at all!” Vent shook his head nervously before approaching the Biometal and Aile.

Model F paused for a moment before remembering something, “Oh, the password. Sorry, but I can’t give the whole thing to you yet. Serpent split my power down the middle and the other part is with another Pseudoroid. If you can take that one down, I can give you the password.”

Vent took Model F before he and Aile transformed back into their human forms, “Man, now I’m really tired!”

Aile saw Vent had dropped his arms and laughed, “Well, I guess now you really deserve a good rest after a good job in this mission. Let’s just go back to the HQ and report to Prairie, and then we can turn in for the night.”

“Yeah, now that sounds ni-wait! I think we forgot about something!” Vent got up suddenly.

“Really? What is it?” Vent pulled out the portable transporter before grabbing Aile’s hand, “Hey! Wait-” Before Aile could finish, the two had teleported away and reappeared in the first building they were in, except that the fire had completely gone out, “Huh? Isn’t this the basement of the building from before?”

“Exactly,” Vent opened the door and peeked in, seeing that a dog was lying right behind the door, looking up at him, “Finally found you! The very last survivor!”

“The last survivor? But I thought you said that was every last of them!” Aile asked as she recalled when she asked Vent the question.

“Yeah, but you said ‘people’,” Vent knelt down and petted the dog, which licked him in return, “This poor dog isn’t a person!”

“Well, I guess you’re right,” Aile shrugged and smiled, “Let’s get that dog out of here and fulfill your promise to that boy!”

“Right!” Vent teleported the dog away with the transporter before turning to Aile, “It’s a bad thing if I ever forget a promise, even if it’s about an unimportant thing!”

“So you always keep your promises, huh?” Aile asked.

“Not always, and that’s why it makes me feel bad if I don’t,” Vent looked at Aile with a smile, “And if I promise you with something, I must never forget it!”

“And what can you promise me now?” Aile asked, thinking of a sly plan to make fun of him out of pleasure.

“I promise…” Vent took both of her hands in his as he looked straight at her eyes, “I promise that I’ll always protect you!”

“H-Huh!?” Aile looked at her hands nervously and looked at Vent, before turning away as she felt her cheeks heating up a little, _‘W-What… was that? What was that feeling just now…?’_


	8. Birthday Present

The light of the sun shone brightly through the gap in the room in the Guardian HQ, waking up the female brown-haired Guardian from her sleep. She stretched her arms and legs before taking a bath and got dressed, heading towards the command center to see that Prairie had just come out of her own room.

“Good morning, Aile. You’re up early today,” Prairie greeted with a smile as the brown-haired Guardian came into the command center.

“Good morning,” Aile replied with a smile, “Is there another mission for us to do today?”

Prairie shook her head, “I’m sorry, but I haven’t got any Biometal signals yet. But since you’re not on duty today, why don’t you go on for a walk in the city? It’s better that you take a break once in a while.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…” Aile turned to the door, “I guess I’ll do some relaxing sightseeing in the city today… Thanks for the advice, Prairie!”

“Anytime!” Prairie smiled as Aile left the room before she turned back to get back to her work.

As the door closed, Aile let out a sigh, “This is boring… I guess I’ll just go and enjoy myself on the deck for a while before going to the city…” Aile took the elevator and went up, but then suddenly noticed a purple-haired Guardian in a nurse uniform standing in front of the medic wing, looking troubled, _‘That’s Rose… I wonder what’s up…’_

Aile pressed down on the elevator and walked over towards the young nurse, who noticed her coming, “O-Oh, Aile! Good morning…”

“Good morning!” Aile greeted back with a smile, “What’s up Rose? Are you in trouble or something?”

The young nurse shook her head, “No, that’s not the problem…” Rose turned to the door leading to the medic wing, “You see… Commander Prairie’s birthday is tomorrow, and I was wondering about what to give for her birthday. I want it to be memorable or useful to her, because I want to repay her for what she did to me. She had saved my life before and had taken me in as a member of the Guardians when I lost my family and friends to the Mavericks…”

“I… see…” Aile was taken aback by Rose’s long talking.

“Muguet decided that she and I could give her a present together, but we still can’t come up with a good idea about what to give her. I was thinking that it was a good idea to give her a stuffed animal because she likes them very much, so…” Rose continued, but was cut off by Aile.

“Sorry to interrupt, but your problem is…?” Aile asked, hoping that Rose’s answer wasn’t too long.

“We didn’t have enough Energy Crystals to afford the stuffed animal to give her…” Rose shortly replied.

“If it’s Energy Crystals you need, then I guess I can give you some,” Aile took out her wallet, “How much is it?”

“I think Muguet told me that it was 1500 Energy Crystals, but we only needed 500 more,” Rose saw Aile taking out 500 Energy Crystals from her wallet, “I-Is that okay with you?”

“Don’t worry, just take it,” Aile took Rose’s hand and put the Energy Crystals in her hand, “And you don’t have to pay me back for it. Say, Prairie likes stuffed animals, huh? Maybe I should get her one as well!”

“Yes, I think Commander would be happy with that,” Rose nodded and smiled, “Thank you, Aile… Now we can afford the present for Commander Prairie!”

“No problem!” Aile walked back to the elevator and stopped, “Maybe I should get Vent to shop with me, but then… I don’t think he would be up for at least another four hours…” Aile smiled to herself, “After all, he did play a big role in rescuing people from the fire last night… and he even saved dogs though most dogs never liked him for some reason…”

_‘I promise that I’ll always protect you!’_

_‘That promise… that was the promise Vent made to me last night… B-But why am I thinking about it?’_ Aile shook her head and paused for a moment before letting out a sigh, _‘Now’s not the time to be think about it! I have to get Vent to come with me and look for Prairie’s birthday present!’_

Aile pushed down on the elevator, going to the floor right below the command center, where hers and Vent’s room were. Aile knocked on Vent’s door and waited for a while, but got no reply. She tried knocking harder, but yet got no reply from Vent. Out of anger, Aile kicked Vent’s door angrily.

“Vent! Will you wake up already!?” Aile yelled angrily, but all she got was a groaning sound from the inside, “Vent! Wake up already or I’ll force you to wake up!”

“Alright… alright…” Vent’s voice was heard before the door slid open, revealing Vent still in his pajamas, “Why do you have to wake me up this early…? It’s not another mission, isn’t it…?”

“Well, it’s…” A plan popped out in Aile’s head, “… a very important mission: getting Prairie a birthday present!”

“Yeah, very funny… A very important mission… wait! Did you say Prairie’s birthday present?” Vent asked, already wide awake, “When is it and how did you know?”

“It’s tomorrow and I knew it from Rose,” Aile replied, “Is that a problem?”

“Nope! Just hold on, I’ll be getting ready in a moment!” Vent went back into the room before Aile could say anything and came back out a few minutes later, already dressed in his regular blue coat and white pants, “Okay, I’m ready to go!”

Vent and Aile went to the city through the transerver and started looking through the stores in the city. Hours had passed since they started looking for the present, but they had no progress and it was already in the middle of the day. The two went out of the last store in empty hands and empty stomachs.

“Great, now I’m hungry,” Vent complained as he walked next to Aile, who was still looking around for more stores, before he spotted a restaurant, “Hey, let’s stop there and eat!” Vent turned to Aile, “Don’t worry, I’ll treat you!”

“Okay, thanks!” Aile followed Vent as they went into the restaurant to have lunch before headed out again to continue their search.

Just as they started walking, Aile stopped and pointed at a game center right across the restaurant, “Hey Vent, I hope you don’t mind if we spend some time playing there. Maybe we can come up with an idea for the present!”

“Yeah, nice excuse. You just want to play there, don’t you?” Vent asked curiously.

“Well, that’s partially true!” Aile replied casually before taking Vent’s hand, “Come on, let’s go!”

“Y-Yeah!” Vent looked at his hand, which was in Aile’s, before he was dragged away to the game center.

Just as they entered, Vent felt that he was still being dragged by Aile before they stopped. Vent looked ahead saw the crane game machine, “Maybe we can get Prairie one of this! I think Rose said that Prairie likes stuffed animals!” Aile noticed that Vent was giving her a glare, “Sorry, I just remembered!”

Vent let out a sigh before pulling out his wallet and put it in front of the machine, “Since my allowance is ‘very thick’ now, I guess I can forgive you…” Vent pulled out some crystals and looked at it, _‘And thanks to that, I got the chance to spend some time with Aile… B-But it’s not like I’m enjoying this as a date!’_ Vent paused for a moment as he thought through the things he and Aile had done that day, _‘Walking with her side-by-side, having lunch together, and now spending time in front of the crane game machine in the game center… Y-Yeah, I guess those are the most common activities in dates…’_

“Uh, Vent? Are you going to put in those crystals?” Aile asked, snapping Vent from his train of thought.

“Y-Yeah! Sorry, I was just spacing out,” Vent put the crystals in before moving the claw with the stick, “Hm… I guess that pink rabbit will do!” Vent moved the claw towards the pink rabbit sitting in the middle of the box before grabbing it and moving it towards the prize hole, but the doll slipped and fell a bit from the prize hole, “Aw, man!”

“Hey, let me try!” Aile put in some crystals and moved the claw to grab the rabbit, but it slipped before the claw could even lift it up, “No! It slipped!”

“Aile, you don’t have to waste your crystals here!” Vent put in more crystals and started moving the claw again, “I got this. I’m going to win that doll even if it costs all of my crystals!”

Aile laughed as she saw him failed again and put in more crystals, “Alright, go on ahead! I guess you really like Prairie, right Vent?”

“What!?” Vent turned to her in surprise, rocking the machine a little and made the doll fell again, “Great, it fell again…” Vent let out a sigh before turning to Aile, “It’s not like that, okay? I only consider Prairie as a friend, okay?”

Hours had passed since Vent and Aile put their effort into the crane game to get the doll for Prairie, but they still hadn’t got it. Vent’s Energy Crystals had already gone down to half compared to a few hours earlier as Vent refused to give up on it. Aile was still watching at his side, until she saw that it was already sunset on the outside.

“Hey Vent,” Aile turned to Vent, who was still focused on the crane game, “I’m going to buy something for dinner, just in case. Is it okay if I leave you here?”

“I’m okay…” Vent replied tiredly, “I’m not giving up on that doll!”

Aile saw how serious Vent was before she let out a smile and walked out of the game center, searching for a restaurant to buy something from. Meanwhile, Vent had already put in all of his crystals into the machine so he wouldn’t need to stop to put in more crystals when he failed again and again.

A few hours had passed and the sky was turning dark. Aile was walking out of a restaurant, heading back to the game center with a paper bag in her arms, “Man, that was a really long queue! The longest one I’ve ever been!” Aile walked into the game center and saw that fewer people were in there, and Vent was still standing in front of the crane machine, “Still no luck?”

Vent didn’t bother turning when Aile approached him and continued playing, “No, it keeps on slipping!”

Aile pulled out a hamburger and shoved it into Vent’s mouth, “There, you should eat that!” Aile pulled out another hamburger for her to eat and put the paper bag away.

Vent bit the hamburger and took it out from his mouth, “A hamburger? Guess that’ll do! I’m beginning to starve here!”

 _‘Silly Vent…’_ Aile thought as she smiled before taking a bite of her burger and then turned to him, “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“What is it?” Vent asked back, not turning away from the machine.

“Do you… you know… have an eye on someone?” Aile’s question had shocked Vent, who dropped the doll again.

“What was that all of the sudden!?” Vent turned to Aile with a blush on his face, “I-If you really want to know… I have my eyes on…” Vent looked at Aile’s eyes, which were filled with anticipation, “… on no one…”

“What!?” Aile asked in surprise, “You’re not into someone? Not at all?”

“N-No…” Vent turned to the machine, but then turned back to Aile, “Now here’s my question: what about you and Boss? I can tell that he seems to care a lot about you.”

“Me and Giro?” Aile asked again, getting a nod from Vent before she sighed, “No, Vent. It’s not like that between us. Giro is a good guy, but to me he’s nothing more than a friend and a father figure…” Aile paused for a moment before continuing, “What does Giro mean to you Vent? I saw that you were very depressed when he was gone…”

Vent let out a sigh, “Boss is… well, my boss… And there are times when we’re like brothers too…”

“I see…” Aile lowered her head, “I guess losing Giro is great loss to both of us, huh?”

Vent nodded in reply, “Yeah, but at least… if we keep on fighting and not giving up, Boss’ sacrifice won’t be in vain!”

Aile nodded in agreement, “Yeah… I guess you’re right…”

Once they were done talking, Vent and Aile finished their burgers, but they hadn’t finished trying to get the doll. The owner of the game center had already approached them several times to ask them to leave as they were about to close for the day, but Vent begged for them to stay there a little longer as he still had some crystal in the machine.

More hours had passed and it was already midnight. Vent was finally down for two last chances and was hoping that his final crystals would lead them to the doll. As Vent moved the claw carefully to the prize hole, his hand shook a little and made the claw drop the doll again.

Vent let out a sigh before turning to Aile, who was still watching him with her tired eyes, “One more chance. I still have one last chance!”

“The two of you are still here!? This is already midnight!” The owner of the game center came to them, slightly irritated, “We’ve already closed down four hours ago!”

“Please, sir! We still have one last chance!” Aile begged, but the owner ignored her and reached for the plug behind the machine, “N-No, please!”

“I got it!” Vent cheered as the rabbit doll finally fell into the prize hole right before the owner unplugged the machine.

“Vent!” Aile took the doll out before turning to Vent and threw her arms around him, “Vent, you did it! You actually won the doll!”

“Y-Yeah…” Vent replied quietly as he felt embarrassed with Aile hugging him, but then noticed the glare coming from the owner, “S-Sir! We’ll be getting out of here!” Vent broke the hug and took Aile’s free hand before they stormed out of the game center.

“That was a close one…” Aile sighed in relief while hugging the pink rabbit doll, “Vent, can I hold on to it? And don’t worry, I won’t take credit for the… uh… hard work you did to get this doll!”

Vent laughed as he saw Aile happily hugging the doll, “Sure, go ahead. Now let’s get back before Prairie gets worried!”


	9. Icy Lake

The next day came after a long day Vent and Aile, who spent most of their time in the game center in the city only to get a rabbit doll for Prairie’s birthday present from the crane game. The male brown-haired Guardian let out a yawn as he walked through the Guardian HQ, heading towards the command center where Aile and Prairie were waiting.

“Good morning, sleepy head!” Aile greeted in a mocking tone, “It’s a really rare sight to see you up so early today!”

Vent let out another yawn before turning to Aile tiredly, “Yeah… thanks to you for banging on my door, again…”

“Vent, good morning!” Prairie rose from her seat with a smile as she greeted the sleepy Guardian, holding the pink rabbit doll he got her, “Thank you for such a wonderful birthday present! Aile told me that you two were in the game center all day to get me a present… And Vent, you don’t have to use up all of your crystals to get me a present…”

“It’s alright, Prairie…” Vent let out a tired smile, “I’m just lucky that the people I helped during the fire two days ago were generous enough to give me some crystals in return for helping them, though I didn’t ask for any…”

“Anyways, thank you for getting me a birthday present you two,” Prairie smiled at them as she hugged the rabbit doll, “And today, I managed to detect two Biometal signals. I need you to go to the lake first, because there’s also a distress call coming from there as well.”

“A distress call?” Aile asked, “Then there might be people in there!”

Prairie nodded in reply, “Yes, and that’s why I want you to go there first. There are some supplies in the transerver room in case you’ll need to get into the lake and lastly, I’ll send the coordinates for the other Biometal signal to the transerver later.”

“Okay then, let’s get moving!” Vent snapped out of his tiredness before he and Aile headed out towards the transerver room, heading out towards the lake.

Vent and Aile teleported to the mountain area, which was right under the lake area. Once they entered the lake area, strong wind blew as they stepped on white soft substance, which in fact was snow. The wind was blowing hard, blowing away the snow to create a blizzard in the icy cold area. As they came into the area, more wind blew and they hugged themselves due to the cold.

“T-This is… c-c-c-cold!” Vent said before he sneezed.

“Y-Y-Yeah… really… really… c-c-cold…” Aile turned to Vent shakily, “V-V-Vent… C-Can we… t-transform into M-M-Model FX…?” Vent went silent, both of his hands in his pocket before he pulled out two Biometals, “V-V-Vent…?”

“S-Sorry…” Vent turned to Aile, “I-I left it… i-in my room…” Vent showed her the two Biometals in his hands, which were Model X and Z, “M-Maybe M-M-Model ZX c-can w-warm us… a l-little…”

“I-I h-h-hope…” Aile put her hands over the Biometals.

“Rock ON! Model ZX!” Red armor covered Vent’s and Aile’s body.

“I guess this is better than nothing…” Aile commented before their communication devices turned on.

 _“The distress call definitely came from this area, but the signal is too weak to pinpoint the exact location,”_ Prairie said through the communicator.

Aile paused for a moment before replying, “I can’t get a lock on it either. Maybe it’s up to us to find it,” Aile turned to Vent, “Let’s go further back!”

Vent nodded before he and Aile went deeper through the snowy area. They pulled out their portable oxygen tanks before they went into the lake, sinking as their armor weighted them down. They landed on the bottom of the lake, which was filled with aquatic-themed Mechaniloids instead of real aquatic animals or plants.

“I think… I’m getting a signal further back from this place,” Vent started, before noticing that the Mechaniloids in the area were surrounding them, “Now what do they want?”

“Uh, Vent… I think we’ve stepped into their territory…” Aile replied, seeing that the fish-shaped Mechaniloids were looking at them in an unfriendly manner.

“You’re kidding!” Vent rejected, “There’s no way these stupid Mechaniloids are going to attack us for going into the territ-” One of the Mechaniloids swam towards Vent, “H-Hey!”

Aile shot the Mechaniloids as they began attacking Vent, only to have her shots missed as the Mechaniloids swam away as they were about to be shot, “No use, I can’t shoot them! They’re too fast!” Aile put away her buster and replaced it with her saber instead before turning to Vent, “Vent, use your saber!”

“I… can’t…” Vent replied before being knocked away by a Mechaloid on the stomach, followed by another one on his back, and another one on his neck, making as if the Mechaniloid was playing with Vent as a ball.

Vent got slammed into the lake’s wall, but he took the small chance to pull out his saber and cut through the incoming fish-like Mechaniloid before more of them came towards him. Vent let out another slash before jumping off the wall and landed on the bottom of the lake once more, rejoining Aile as she had slashed to last pair of Mechaniloids.

“Let’s go! The signal is coming from this way!” Vent and Aile dashed through the bottom of the lake before climbing on the other side and went inside a rundown building, which was standing on the other side of the lake.

They came across a big room upon entering, filled with a few Galleon Hunters and few more Mechaniloids running in the room. Aile looked up, sensing a signal nearby, “Hello!? Is anyone here? We’ve come to help!” There was no reply, only the sounds of Mechaniloids were heard, “Hmm… No one’s around.”

 _“The source of the signal is definitely coming from near your position. The device emitting the signal should be close. Try to locate it,”_ Prairie told the two before ending the connection.

“If I’m not mistaken…” Aile looked far up and saw a door on top of a platform in the room, “There. The signal is coming from that door.”

“Well then, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Vent ran ahead and  started climbing on the cables sticking out from the walls before turning back to Aile, who was still on her place, “Hey, what are you doing down there?” Vent looked up at the door before turning back to Aile, “Wait, don’t tell me…”

“NO!” Aile quickly replied, “I am _not_ afraid! I just prefer staying here rather than climbing those cables!”

Vent just shrugged before continuing, “Alright, suit yourself! Just let me know if something happens, okay?”

“Yeah, fine…” Aile turned away, folding her arms in irritation before noticing a locked door on the platform right above her, “I wonder what’s behind that locked door…”

Meanwhile, Vent had just made it to the platform where the door Aile had mention before and went through it. As soon as he entered the room, he was pulled away by a conveyor belt on the ground from the door he came from and straight toward a compactor Mechaniloid, which had light cannon ready to fire at him. As the cannon was about to fire, Vent quickly dash jumped towards the wall to dodge and landed back to the conveyor belt, which was still pulling him.

“This guy’s a real pain!” Vent commented as he kept on running against the conveyor belt before getting his ZX buster ready, “I guess I’ll have to stick with long distance attacks for a little while…”

Vent let out a charged shot before releasing a series of shots at the cannon while it had its spiky compactor above Vent’s head. Vent closed in to the Mechaniloid before he was smashed by the Mechaniloid’s compactor and pulled out his ZX saber and sliced through the cannon several times before it was destroyed.

Vent let out a sigh and put away his saber, before noticing that the Mechaniloid was guarding a door behind it, “A door… I guess the survivors are in there…” Vent went through the door, only to find himself inside a small room with nothing but a big computer inside. Vent reached out for his communicator, “Prairie, I found the terminal that has been sending out the signal. But there’s no one around.”

 _“What? I wonder what could have happened there…”_ Prairie asked through the communicator.

The computer suddenly booted up on its own, “What’s this? There’s a data disk still in the terminal.”

 _“I don’t have much longer. I pray that this data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands,”_ The sound coming from the computer said before the screen showed a video of scientists examining a strange looking Biometal, _“The recon unit has unearthed a strange metal in this area. It seems… conscious. It began to speak to us in our minds. The commander called it ‘Biometal Model W’. We continued to research the Biometal under her orders. However, everyone was complaining of unexplained headaches and a strange numbness… Upon hearing this, she removed us from the site and continued the research on her own. Despite these precautions, our unit was annihilated. One of our own had suddenly gone mad…”_

“That’s the end of the data,” Vent said as the computer shut down on its own.

 _“Sis… This is a report from the first commander’s recon unit! The distress call must have been activated to make sure someone would find this data,”_ Prairie paused for a moment before she replied in a softer voice, _“But the recon unit is… gone.”_

“Stay with me Prairie,” Vent comforted the Guardian commander, “I need to know where the Biometal is.”

 _“Vent…”_ Prairie said in a whisper, before she went silent for a moment.

“Slither Inc. might have the rest of the data,” Vent let out a smile, though he knew that Prairie couldn’t see it, “Don’t give up on your sister just yet.”

There was another short pause before Prairie replied, _“You’re right. I’m sorry Vent. I’m reading the Biometal signature just beyond the locked door. We’ll hack the lock from Guardian HQ.”_

Vent ended the connection before pumping up his fists, “Looks like we’re back in business!”

Meanwhile, Aile was waiting in front of the locked door on the lower platform. As Prairie had told Vent, the lock opened up after it was hacked into. Just Aile was about to enter the unlocked door, she heard a familiar voice and looked up, finding Vent just a few meters above her.

“WATCH OUT!!!” Vent yelled as Aile moved away before he landed on her, again.

“Vent, what on earth did you do!?” Aile asked angrily, still in shock.

“I jumped,” Vent replied shortly while rubbing the back of his head nervously, “B-But on the right side, I found out that there was no one who sent out the distress call, I found a data disk containing the first commander’s recon unit report, and I’ve contacted Prairie to hack the lock on this door!” Vetn explained quickly.

“Oh, she did?” Aile asked in disbelief, getting a panicked nod from Vent, “Relax, I’m not mad anymore. Now we can continue searching for the Biometal!”

“What!? A lake inside a building!?” Vent commented when they saw water in the next room, “This is a really weird building…”

“It must be because of a Biometal Pseudoroid,” Aile suggested, “Which means that we’re pretty close to our next goal.”

“Yeah, I guess you’ve got a point…” Vent said before he followed Aile into the water.

Just as they reached out of the building, they came across a penguin-like figure hanging on a silver pole, “Hey look! There’s a poor penguin over there hanging on a pole!”

“Really?” Vent asked in disbelief before he looked at the penguin, which was swinging back and forth on the pole, “Hey, you’re right!” Suddenly, Vent noticed the ground under the penguin figure moved and a giant fish-like Mechaniloid emerged from it, “Okay, now I think it’s not really a penguin!”

“How rude!” The penguin figure spoke up, and then noticed the data disk in Vent’s hand, “Oh my! What’s that disk you’ve got there? Agh! I thought I told you Mavericks to leave anything of importance with me! Hmph! Worthless fools!”

“I knew it,” Vent put the disk away, “You’re after this disk! Where’s the rest of it?”

“Oh my my… You must be one of those horrid interlopers trying to stop poor Lord Serpent’s plan. Well hmph! I’m not telling you anything, so how do you like that!? I am the lovely Pseudoroid Model L, Lurerre,” The penguin figure, Lurerre, introduced herself before speaking up in a rougher tone, “I’m going to tear you apart piece by piece! Prepare for the end little pathetic ones!”

“Not if we can help it!” Aile quickly pulled out her ZX buster and let out a few shots at Lurerre’s smaller body as her bigger body had buried itself back into the ground.

Vent dashed towards Lurerre, who was firing a series of ice arrows at them. Vent dashed to the sides to dodge the arrows before slashing Lurerre’s body and jumped back. Lurerre took the attack head on before swam higher, sucking in both Guardians with a vortex in her hand. As the Guardians were getting closer, Lurerre’s bigger body came out of hiding with its mouth wide open as a yellow missile was inside.

 _‘A missile?’_ Vent thought to himself before dashing towards the bigger body with his saber ready.

Vent smashed his saber down on the missile, making it explode in the mouth. The shockwave from the explosion had knocked Vent back towards Aile, but Aile moved away in time and grabbed Vent before he could fall. When they looked back to Lurerre, her smaller body had formed a small ice wall and was sending it at them with a beam coming from her hands.

Vent and Aile quickly jumped away, clinging themselves on the outer wall of the building before the ice wall and the beam disappeared. Lurerre sent out a big snowflake above them, which broke into smaller snowflakes. One of the smaller snowflakes hit Vent’s arm, freezing it together along with his saber.

“Vent!” Aile saw that Vent’s arm was frozen and approached him.

“Don’t worry about me!” Vent pointed his frozen arm and saber towards Lurerre, who had sent more ice arrows at them, “Worry about her!”

Vent and Aile moved separate way to dodge the arrows once more before Lurerre sucked them in once more and her bigger body appeared from the ground with another yellow missile. Vent charged in once more and slammed his saber down on the missile, breaking both the ice on his arm and the missile.

Vent was thrown back and landed next to Aile, who had charged her buster and was about to fire. When Lurerre was about to send out some snowflakes, Aile released her shot, which went through Lurerre’s snowflake in her hands and Lurerre herself.

“Oh my… Oh my… Goodbye cruel world,” Lurerre said weakly, before her voice changed, “How could this be! Done in by creepy little runts!” Lurerre’s body glowed for a moment before exploding, leaving a light blue Biometal floating in her place.

 _“I am the Biometal of the Ice, Model L. Thank you for freeing me from that awful body. You’re looking for the rest of the data disk right?”_ The Biometal, Model L, asked and got nods from Vent and Aile, _“I’m sorry, but it has already been taken away somewhere. A hundred years have passed since the war, but it looks like some things will never change.”_

“There’s a man named Serpent and he is trying to awaken Model W. We’re going to need your help and the password to stop him,” Aile told the Biometal, which turned to Aile before turning to Vent.

 _“Hmm… Model Z, I heard the story about Serpent. I know you are linked with a host body, but I heard he beat you in combat,”_ Model L said to the red Biometal with Vent.

 _“Yes… My failure led to the death of a good man named Giro,”_ Model Z’s voice echoed in the room.

 _“I see…”_ Model L paused for a moment, _“Alright, I’ll join you. It should be an interesting challenge to take on the one who bested the great Model Z. I’ll give you my password, but the data is split into two halves. The other Pseudoroid with my power has the remaining half. I won’t be able to give you the complete password until you defeat him.”_

Aile took the light blue Biometal before turning to Vent, “Come on, let’s report to the HQ before going on the next mission.”

“Seriously?” Vent let out a tired sigh as he followed Aile to the transerver room, “Unlike you, I had to do an extra battle today, so I’m more tired than you are. If the next mission needs us to go far away, I guess I’ll just pass…”

“Alright, just do what you like!” Aile replied in irritation before she reported in, “Vent, the data disk,” Vent handed her the disk before she turned in the disk.

“Okay, so where next?” Vent walked over to Aile, who was checking the data for the next mission. The two went silent for a moment as they saw the location of the next mission before Vent spoke up, “I don’t want to rest anymore. I’m going on this mission!”

The two silently teleported themselves away from the area towards the forest area, near the location for their next mission.


	10. Amusement Park of Memories

Vent and Aile silently entered the rundown amusement park, which still had a few attractions operative. Aile was looking up at the Ferris wheel behind a broken roller coaster, while Vent was looking at a destroyed ice cream stand. Remains of Mechaniloids and Mavericks were all over the place on their feet as not many people had been around the park for years.

 _“Vent! Aile! Mavericks are concentrating in that area! It looks like they’re after the Biometal too, so be careful!”_ Prairie warned from the communicators, but the Guardians kept silent, making the commander worry, _“Vent? Aile? Did you two hear me? What’s wrong?”_

There was another long pause before Aile decided to speak up, “Oh! Sorry… We’re going to proceed with the mission now…” Aile cut off the connection before looking at the Ferris wheel once more, _‘I can’t believe we’re going to fight here…’_ Aile turned to Vent, who was lowering his head, “Let’s go, Vent. We have to continue with the mission…”

Vent only gave her a silent nod before looking up and saw that a few Galleon Hunters were heading his way. Vent pulled out his saber and charged at them, slicing them in half. Aile saw Vent dashing ahead while cutting through the Mavericks on his way before following him. Aile came into a stop when small Mechaniloids with yellow helmets blocked her way. Aile pulled out her ZX buster and shot them at a close range, breaking them into their smaller version. Out of irritation, Aile stepped on them to dispose of them quickly and followed Vent deeper into the park.

Vent was dashing ahead, never having his saber away from his hands. He cut through all kinds Mechaniloids coming to his way, although they weren’t purposely going to attack him and proceed through the park without looking back. A giant Mechaniloid with a giant yellow helmet came jumping down in front of Vent, who jumped back to avoid it.

Aile saw the Mechaniloid from her place and made a mad dash towards the area, where Vent was slashing the Mechaniloid like mad. Aile charged her buster and shot the helmet, but the shot was rebounded by the helmet. The Mechaniloid came out from its helmet and was about to attack by sending out colorful balloons filled with smaller Mechaniloids, but Aile had let out another charged shot which went through its body and Vent and finished it off by cutting the remains of its body in half.

The Mechaniloid exploded, but nothing was left of it which made Vent slam his saber angrily on a nearby steel pillar and knocked it down, “Argh! That wasn’t the one with the Biometal either!” As Vent reached out for his communicator, Aile looked at the place where the Mechaniloid was and tighten her grip on her buster, “Prairie! Where’s that Biometal signature!?”

“Prairie, just hurry up and tell us already!” Aile added angrily.

 _“What’s wrong with you two? You’ve been acting strange ever since this mission started,”_ Prairie told the two as she tried calming the angered Guardians.

Vent stayed silent, leaving Aile to speak up, “Ten years ago we were attacked by Mavericks… Vent once told me that he saw his mom killed right in front of him, while I was trapped with my mom along with a couple of Mavericks in the Ferris wheel and I heard her being shot as I fell from the Ferris wheel…” Aile let a single tear drop to the ground, “And Giro… he was the one who rescued us from the attack…”

 _“You were there ten years ago during the Maverick raid…”_ Prairie gasped in surprise.

“This place has a lot of memories for us, both good and bad… We just don’t want anything to happen to those memories… We want them to stay the way they are…” Aile continued as she wiped more tears away.

 _“Now I understand. I’m sorry, I…”_ Prairie spoke up, but was cut off by Aile.

“No, we’re sorry. We were getting all worked up with the memories of our moms and Giro flooding back,” Aile turned to Vent, who had calmed down.

 _“Vent, Aile, please remember that you two are never alone. You’ve got me and the other Guardians… And you’ve got Giro watching over you too. We’ll all save this country,”_ Prairie finished as Aile’s lips curved into a smile.

“Thank you Prairie,” Aile turned to Vent, who turned to her and gave her a nod, “Recommencing mission!”

Vent and Aile went into a recently-made tower-like building made of cushion and proceed by going up through a gigantic crane game machine and floating balloons. Once they reached the top, they came across a room filled with stuffed animals and toys. A purple ape-like Pseudoroid was hanging on a rope going across the ceiling and dropped down when he saw the two came into the room.

Vent’s eyes grew wide when he saw the Pseudoroid, _‘No… it can’t be…’_

**_-Flashback-_ **

_A five years old boy with short brown hair and green eyes were running while holding a woman’s hand, whose hair and eye had the same color as him, except that her hair was longer. They came into a stop when they saw a group of Mavericks in front of them, pointing their guns at them. The woman knelt down to the boy, who was shaking in fear as he looked up at her._

_“M-Mommy… I-I’m scared…” The boy whispered shakily as he held on to the woman tightly._

_The woman hugged him and put a hand on his head, “It’s okay, Vent… Everything is going to be okay… Don’t worry, Mommy’s here…”_

_The Mavericks began shooting at them, but the woman had pulled the boy, Vent, into her arms and blocked the shots with her body. Vent shut his eyes until he noticed some liquid dripping to his hands. He opened his eyes to see the woman, his own mother, with her eyes completely lifeless before she collapsed on top of him._

_“M-Mom…? Mommy! No, Mommy! Please! Don’t leave me!” Vent cried as he saw his mother die in front of his eyes before peeking from under his mother’s body and saw a shadowy figure in the shape of an ape, “Y-You! You killed my mom!”_

**_-End of Flashback-_ **

_‘He’s the one… he’s the one who killed my mom!’_ Vent though angrily, pulling out his saber.

“Ook! Ook! So a Maverick has come to take me back eh? Lord Serpent just doesn’t understand how to treat his employees!” The Pseudoroid said, feeling irritated.

“So you’re the one with the Biometal! I’m sorry but we’ll be taking it now,” Aile declared, pointing her buster at him.

“Oh, so you’re not one of the Mavericks? Then get out of my park!” The Pseudoroid stepped closer.

Vent took a step forward, pointing his saber right under the Pseudoroid’s chin, “Why don’t _you_ get out of _my_ park!?”

“Ook? You aren’t actually going to challenge an officer of Slither Inc. are you?” The Pseudoroid let out a laugh, with greatly irritated Vent, “This should be interesting. I’ll show you just how powerful the Pseudoroid Purprill really is!”

Aile was about to aim her buster, but stopped when she saw Vent blindly charged at Purprill. Purprill threw some sand on him before he climbed back to his rope and threw an iron ball at them. Vent quickly recovered and moved back to dodge the ball, not noticing that the ball bounced and headed towards Aile, who were taken by surprise.

Vent continued with a spinning slash as Purprill was still hanging on his rope and landed a few hits on his legs. Purprill let go of the rope and fell, purposely trying to step on Vent, but was knocked back as Aile had shot a charged shot at him. Irritated, Purprill charged at her only to be stopped by Vent in the middle of the way before he swung his saber and left a small cut across Purprill’s chest.

Vent was about to continue with another slash, but Purprill had jumped up to his rope again and threw two purple bombs at them. Vent knocked one of them away with his saber, only to have it land next to Aile. Vent jumped to slash Purprill, but Purprill jumped down and turned itself into a Frisbee.

Purprill bounced off the walls, knocking both Vent and Aile before stopping at one side of the wall while spinning, showering the two with rocks. Purprill turned back to his ape form and fell right on Vent, missing his head by an inch. Vent rose slowly as he felt pain all over his body and looked at Purprill, who was standing tall in front of him. From under Purprill’s legs, Vent suddenly noticed Aile on the opposite side of the room, badly beaten up and had already transformed back into her human form.

“Aile!” Vent quickly sidestepped Purprill before running to Aile’s side and picked her up in his arms, “Aile! Are you okay!? Hang in there!”

“I’m… okay…” Aile replied weakly before she and Vent noticed Purprill’s shadow covering them.

“Ook! Ook! What’s this? One down already?” Purprill laughed, but then noticed something, “Oh wait, that’s not my handiwork!” Purprill turned to Vent, “But whatever! Thanks to you, my work is now much easier!”

Vent looked over to Aile in panic, _‘Oh no… What have I done!? I was so focused on killing him, but I let Aile get hurt…’_ Vent lowered his head, _‘And after I promised her that I would always protect her…’_

“Vent…” Vent felt a hand on his cheek and looked up to see Aile smiling weakly at him, “I know what you’re thinking… and it’s not your fault… I only let my guard down, that’s all…”

“Aile…” Vent looked at Aile before he let out a smile, “No, it’s my fault and I’ll make it up to it! I’ll make it up for breaking that promise!” Vent turned to Purprill, “Purprill! You may have killed my mom, and I won’t forgive you for it,” Vent turned to Aile for a moment before turning back to Purprill, “But that’s the past. I won’t forget my mom as a part of my past, but Aile… she’s a part of the present and that’s what matters more! The present matters more than my past!”

“Ook! I don’t care what matters the most! You two are going to die here!” Purprill raised his arms.

“I’m not going to let you do that!” Vent swung his saber, cutting Purprill in half.

“N-nooo! I’m to powerful to be beaten! I’m an… officer… I should be… unstoppable… Ooook!!!” Purprill’s body glowed for a moment before he exploded, leaving a purple Biometal floating in his place while Vent helped Aile back to her feet.

“Thanks Vent… I’ll be okay now…” Aile told her friend before he let her go.

 _“Drowning in his own power… What an appropriate end for a low-life that wanted it so badly,”_ The Biometal started, _“I am the Biometal of the Shadows, Model P. You fought bravely. Model X, since you are lending your power to these two, am I to assume the time has come?”_

 _“It has. Someone is trying to revive Model W. Will you help us stop him?”_ Model X’s voice echoed in the room.

 _“It is our destiny across the ages to protect the world of Man. Let us once again become humanity’s blade for striking down evil,”_ Model P replied, _“I apologize that I cannot hand over the password. Serpent split my data up into two parts. The other part is contained in a different Pseudoroid. As long as that Pseudoroid is operational, you will never reach Model W.”_

“Then we better stay alert if there’s another enemy out there with the power of Model P,” Aile said before she took Model P with her and turned to Vent, who had transformed back to his human form, “Let’s report and head back to the HQ.”

Vent and Aile went into the transerver room and reported in, getting an emergency connection from Prairie, _“Vent! Aile! Can you hear me!? Come in!”_ Prairie’s voice was heard, but not too clearly, _“HQ radar has spotted multiple Slither Inc. airships! Their fleet is flying full speed straight at us! Please get back here! We need your help!”_

“Slither Inc. airships!? What are they going to do with the Guardian HQ!? Prairie, come in!” Vent reached for his communicator, but got no reply as the connection was cut off by force, “This is bad! We have to find another transerver to get us back to the base!”

“There’s one in the forest and it’s the closest one around,” Aile suggested, “Let’s go!”


	11. Under Attack!

Vent and Aile arrived at the HQ’s transerver room and headed straight towards the command center, not paying attention that the whole HQ had emptied out. The door slid open, revealing the Guardian commander sitting at the main hub while looking at the screen which showed the radar.

“Prairie, what’s the status on the enemy fleet!?” Vent asked as he and Aile came into the command center.

Prairie turned her head from the screen, “Not good! They’re right on top of us! This ship wasn’t designed for heavy battle. If the enemy boards us, we’re done for!”

The Guardian HQ started shaking a bit before the alarm suddenly went off, “Slither Inc.’s fleet has fired an opening volley! Returning fire!”

Prairie turned to the operators in front of her, “All hands man the port and starboard machine guns! Don’t let them get any closer!” The operators repeated Prairie’s order as they contacted the other Guardians in the HQ before the ship shook again, but more violent than before. Prairie turned her head to the two Guardians once more, “Vent! Aile! You two have to get to the deck and do what you can to stop those boarding parties!”

Aile saluted at Prairie, “We’re on it! We’ll keep every last Guardian safe!” Aile turned to Vent, who had pulled out Model X and Model Z.

“Rock ON! Model ZX!” Vent and Aile transformed into their ZX forms and took the elevator, heading up towards the deck.

A few Guardians were on top of the Guardian HQ’s deck on the higher platform, firing at the airships surrounding the HQ. One of the airships shot out a heavy metal box, which was connected back to the airship with a chain. The impact of the metal box had destroyed the deck’s railings before the door on the box slid open, revealing several Galleons as it came flying out of the box with their wings on their back.

Aile shot the Galleons’ wings, making them either crash to the deck or fall out of the HQ. Vent cut through the flying Galleons with his rolling slash, leaving their remains for Vent to kick out of the deck as the railings were gone. Just as Vent was about to jump and cut the metal box into half, a flying Galleon had appeared behind him without him noticing, but Aile had seen it and shot it before it could hit Vent.

“Thanks!” Vent turned to Aile with a smile before turning back to the door and cut it in half, sending the connected chain back to the airship.

Another airship closed in and sent out two heavy boxes on the deck, destroying more of the deck’s railings. The doors slid open and more flying Galleons came out of the boxes. The flying Galleons began shooting at Vent and Aile, who countered with their ZX busters. With a ZX buster in Vent’s left hand, Vent blocked another incoming Galleon with his ZX saber in his right hand.

More Galleons fell victim to the two Guardians and as they had just destroyed the last two empty metal boxes, another one landed near the entrance leading into the HQ. More flying Galleons flew into the HQ, followed by a male purple Reploid wielding a scythe along with a female one with white and blue armor and wielding a staff.

Vent noticed the infiltrators and turned to the entrance leading into the HQ, “They’re the ones from before!”

 _“Enemy troops have boarded the ship!”_ Prairie’s panicked voice was heard from Vent’s communicator, _“They’re heading for the engine room down below! You have to get down there and protect the engines! Hurry!”_

“But Aile…” Vent turned to Aile, who were shooting at the flying Galleons which had just come out from the most recent metal box, “Aile, you’re still injured from the battle with Purprill! Are you gonna be okay if I leave you here while I go down to the engine room?”

“I’ll be fine!” Aile shortly replied before releasing a charged shot at one of the Galleons, “You go ahead! I’ll catch up with you once I’m done cleaning these guys up!”

“Okay!” Vent shortly replied before heading back into the HQ.

As Vent was going down through the elevator, he pulled out his ZX buster and shot all of the Mavericks he saw on every floor before reaching the bottommost floor where the engine room was. Vent used his buster and shot the remaining Mavericks, which were weak Galleon Hunters, before proceeding to walk towards the engine room, only to be stopped by bombs as they created holes on the floor of the HQ.

Vent looked ahead and saw a door, “The engine room’s up ahead…”

Vent jumped over the holes and made it to the engine room’s door, arriving in time as Prairie and another Guardian member were being cornered by the two infiltrating Reploids. The Guardian kept on shooting at the Reploids, but a shield had blocked all of his shots before they could hit any of the two Reploids.

“Prairie, are you alright!?” Vent asked as he ran to their side.

“Vent!” Prairie noticed that Vent was on his own, “Where’s Aile?”

“She’s still on the deck. There are still more enemies up there to be taken care of,” Vent turned to the two Reploids, shielding Prairie and the Guardian from the two Reploids.

“You… The boy from before…” The female Reploid, Pandora, said as she studied Vent’s form, “Model X… Model Z… together…”

“Or should we just say Model ZX now? Serpent’s orders are to eliminate the Guardians here and now… Such a waste. It’s time for one final test to see if you will make a worthy sacrifice for the revival of Model W,” The male Reploid, Prometheus, suggested as he let out an evil grin.

“Sacrifice!? Me!?” Vent asked angrily.

“Prometheus… It’s not fair…” Pandora protested.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to leave some fun for you,” Prometheus got his scythe ready and looked at Vent with another evil grin, “That is unless he’s too fragile and gets blown to pieces.”

Vent saw Pandora teleported out of the room and turned to Prairie and the other Guardian, “Get back Prairie! I’ll handle him!”

Prairie hesitated for a moment before she nodded and followed the Guardian out of the room. Prometheus disappeared from in front of him and reappeared right above him. A pair of skull-shaped purple fire appeared on Vent’s sides and another pair appeared a little above Prometheus. Prometheus’ body started glowing in light purple color before the skull-shaped began shooting purple fireballs at Vent.

Vent charged his saber and buster as he jumped to dodge the fireballs, before he jumped closer to Prometheus as slammed his saber at him. Prometheus disappeared once more and reappeared right next to him, slamming his scythe so that yellow and purple spikes started coming out from the ground and hit Vent.

Prometheus disappeared again and reappeared right in front of him with his scythe ready to be swung at the Guardian. Vent put his buster in front of him and released a charged shot, knocking Prometheus before he disappeared again from his sight. Prometheus reappeared above Vent without him noticing and dived down with a slash across Vent’s back, followed by a dashing slash on Vent’s left side, breaking part of his armor on the arm.

Prometheus disappeared and then reappeared above Vent before he sent out four skull-shaped fires to shoot out more fireballs at Vent. Vent had slowed down due to the damage he had taken, letting himself hit by some of the fireballs. Prometheus disappeared and reappeared right in front of Vent, ready to slash him with his scythe, but a charged shot coming from the engine room entrance had knocked him back.

“Sorry I’m late,” Aile said with a smile, holding her ZX buster right in front of her.

“Help has arrived, huh?” Prometheus asked as he rose to his feet, “Even so, you’re more powerful than I expected. You’ve combined the Biometal fragments to draw out more power. Excellent feature. That woman knew that she was doing when she created that Biometal…”

Prairie suddenly came back into the room, “Wait!” Prairie looked at Prometheus, “‘That woman’!?" You’re talking about Sis!”

“Oh, you know her? Well then you must not be of this time either…” Prometheus laughed evilly, “What an interesting little connection you two have!”

As Prometheus was starting to fly upwards, Aile came to approach him, “W-Wait!”

“Hmph. Don’t be so quick to bear your claws to me, little ones. It’ll cost you your lives, just like it cost the red Mega Man his,” Prometheus looked down on Vent and Aile as they glared at him in anger, “Consider yourself lucky to be alive. Remember this moment and how I let you live! If you want to press your luck, we’ll be waiting!” Prometheus laughed evilly before he teleported away.

 _“Commander Prairie! The enemy fleet is moving away!”_ The operator’s voice came from Prairie’s communicator.

“The enemy has retreated. I want a damage report!” Prairie’s serious face turned into a frown, “And make sure the wounded get priority,” Prairie turned to Vent and Aile, “Vent, Aile, come back to the command center. There are some things that I want you two to know.”

The two silently followed Prairie to the command center, where the operators were as they were checking the HQ’s status. After a moment of silence, Vent decided to speak up, “Prometheus said that you’re not from this time… is that true?”

Prairie nodded before turning to the two Guardians, “Did you know that a long, long time ago humans and machines were at war with each other?”

“I think I’ve heard of it,” Aile replied, “But it happened hundreds of years ago, so it’s history now…”

Prairie took a deep breath before she let out a sigh, “I’m a machine born of that era. I was designed to look like a person. I’m… a Reploid.”

“You’re a Reploid build hundreds of years ago!?” Vent and Aile asked in disbelief, getting a nod from Prairie.

“But Sis… She was not a Reploid. She was a human. She was a scientist who tried to protect us Reploids when no one else would. When the war ended, human and Reploid were both living in harmony, and peace had finally prevailed,” Prairie continued, “And Sis, as the first commander, gave out the order to protect the people who survived Maverick raids before she disappeared. Giro took you two under his wing because of the first commander’s order…”

Prairie took another deep breath before continuing, “At first I didn’t understand why she would give such an order. But when I saw Giro transform into the Model Z Mega Man and you two transform into the Model X Mega Men, I finally understood the reason. Survivors of Maverick raids share the ability to transform with the power of the Biometal. People like you two and Giro. I’m telling you the truth when I say that’s all I know. I have no idea why some are chosen to be Mega Men while others are not. I’m guessing the only one who knows the real truth behind all of this is Serpent.”

“So if we want the truth, we’re going to have to keep fighting,” Aile concluded, getting a nod from Vent.

“Boss also told us not to give up,” Vent started, “We still had something we must protect. We must destroy Model W and stop the Maverick outbreaks! For Boss… For mom… For your sister… For everyone that we hold dear in our hearts!”

Prairie smiled and nodded, “Yes… Thank you, Vent… Aile…” Prairie looked up through the glass and saw that the sky was getting dark, “You two should get some rest. Hopefully, I can get a mission planned for you.”

“Thanks Prairie,” Aile thanked Prairie before she and Vent transformed back into their human forms and turned to the door, “Good night, Prairie!”

“Good night, you two. Have a nice rest!”


	12. The Mysterious Lab

Two days had passed since the Guardian HQ was attacked. The Guardians had repaired most of the damaged part of the base, with the injured ones slowly recovering from their injuries. Vent and Aile were off duty as they had to wait for the Guardian HQ’s main radar to be fixed before Prairie could start tracking more Biometal signals.

It was almost noon, and the male brown-haired Guardian had just got up from bed and got dressed, heading out towards the command center where the other brown-haired Guardian, Aile, was waiting along with Prairie.

“Morning, you two,” Vent said as he came into the command center, “Prairie, any luck with the other Biometal parts?”

Aile let out a loud sigh, getting Vent’s attention, “It’s not even morning anymore, Vent… It’s almost lunchtime!”

“I’m afraid lunch will have to wait,” Prairie turned her chair towards the two brown-haired Guardians, “I’ve detected a Biometal signal in the lab in Area L. That lab is one of the few labs Sis used for her research down there, so I expect there are some data left in there. I need you two to come over there quickly, because I’ve also detected energy readings of Mavericks going towards that lab. If they beat us to it, we’re going to lose any data the lab has!”

“And that’s a really bad thing!” Aile spoke up before turning to Vent, “Come on, Vent let’s move!”

“Yeah, I guess…” Vent let out a sigh as he slowly followed Aile out of the command center and headed towards the transerver room, “Just don’t blame me if I pass out because of my hunger, okay?”

“Oh, fine! I’ll just leave you out there then!” Aile said in irritation as she was tired of listening to his complaints.

“Well, I was just joking! You don’t have to be so serious about it!” Vent talked back at Aile, who had stopped listening and them teleported to the entrance leading to the lab.

They went through the door into the lab area, only to be welcomed by a buster shot heading towards them. Vent and Aile dodged to the sides and saw that an army of Mechaniloids had invaded the whole area, “We’re too late… They’re going to destroy the lab!”

“It’s not too late yet!” Vent replied before he pulled out Model H and Model X and turned to Aile, “Let’s Rock ON to Model HX and annihilate them from both the ground and the air!”

Aile looked at Vent for a moment in hesitation before nodding and held the Biometals, “Rock ON! Model HX!”

Vent had just slashed a flying Galleon as it passed by before his and Aile’s communicators turned on, _“Vent! Aile! Are you okay!? I’ve detected that the Mavericks had started invading the area!”_

“We’re okay, Prairie,” Aile said before she slashed an incoming iguana-like Mechaniloid with missiles on its back, “And don’t worry about the data. We’ll do what we can to protect it!”

 _“Thank you… And please be very careful! The room with the data should be deeper inside,”_ Prairie told the two before ending the connection.

“I’ll create an opening for us!” Vent charged his sabers before dashing towards another iguana-like Mechaniloid and swung his shorter saber while sending out an electric ball.

The electric ball paralyzed a flying Galleon and before it crashed, Vent kicked it towards the other flying Galleons. Vent let out another electric ball, which was from his longer saber, and it hit the frontmost iguana-like Mechaniloid, paralyzing it. While it was paralyzed, Vent air-dashed towards it and slashed through the whole army with both of his sabers, cleaning up the path leading towards the door to the next room.

Vent proceeded forward with Aile not too far behind him, but she stopped when she noticed the gaps in front of them, leaving only platforms for them to cross over. She saw that Vent was still running ahead of her and stopped him by pulling his arm.

“Wait! Don’t you see where we’re going?” Aile asked, making Vent look up ahead of them and turn to the hole right in front of them.

“The data room should be behind that door…” Vent looked at the door far ahead of them and turned to the hole, “But we have to be careful so that we don’t fall…”

Aile looked at the hole and backed away, before noticing that an object was about to fall into the hole right in front of them, “Vent, look! It looks like this hole isn’t our only problem to get to that door…”

“Missiles!? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Vent turned to the platforms over the hole, which had some Mechaniloids on them, before turning to Aile, “We’ve got no other choice! We have to get through with those platforms and destroy those things!”

Before Aile could say anything, Vent and jumped to the nearest platform and began destroying the Mechaniloids on it with his saber. Aile looked down the hole, which seemed bottomless to her, before closing her eyes and took a deep breath, _‘I can’t look down! I’ll be fine as long as I don’t look down!’_

Aile jumped towards the nearest platform, which had the remains of the Mechaniloids as Vent had destroyed them and jumped to the next platform. Aile dash-jumped to the platform Vent was on to help, but Vent’s quick handling in sabers had done a quick work on the Mechaniloids. As Aile reached the edge of the platform and was about to jump to the last platform, she was completely unaware that there were still a few Mechaniloids remaining, hiding under the remains.

A rat-like Mechaniloid came running towards Aile, who jumped in surprise. She turned to see that there were a few more rat Mechaniloids coming at her and she stepped back, forgetting the fact that she was already at the edge of the platform and almost slipped. The rat Mechaniloids exploded one-by-one, with the closest one hitting her.

Aile was pushed off the platform, but she quickly held on to the edge before she could fall into the bottomless hole. Shakily, she turned to look down, which only caused her to loosen her grip. She closed her eyes in fear as she saw flying Galleons were flying towards her, followed by a few missiles shooting down on the platform she was on.

Aile felt helpless as the cold sweat coming from her palms made her grip on the platform to loosen, making her slowly slip down the platform. She shut her eyes tightly, thinking that it was only a matter of seconds until her hand let her down and slipped into the hole. With her heart beating faster, she let out a scream as she could only hold herself with her fingers as she slowly slipped off the platform.

Vent turned immediately as he heard the scream and turned to Aile, making his eyes grew wide as he saw her hanging desperately for her life on the platform, “AILE!!!”

Aile could heard Vent yelling her name before everything fade away around her as she lost her grip on the platform and fell. She kept her eyes shut and braced for the impact towards the bottom of the hole, which never actually came. Aile slowly opened her eyes, meeting with her brown-haired friend’s green ones.

“Just… hang on…” Vent said as he struggled to get up while pulling Aile with both of his hands.

“Vent…” Aile whispered shakily before she saw the flying Galleons from before flying behind him, “Vent, just… save yourself… Don’t get yourself hurt… by helping me…”

“No…” Aile could feel Vent’s grip on her arms started getting tighter, “I won’t let anyone die again… not when I have the strength to protect them…”

“No, Vent! Just forget about me and go!” Aile protested as she struggled to free herself from Vent’s grip, only to have him tighten his grip.

“I can’t!” Vent looked straight at her, “I already promised that I’ll always protect you! And I’m going to protect you even with my own life at stake!” A shot hit Vent on his back, but he ignored the pain, “You’re my best friend, and I’m not letting you go! We’re going to finish this mission and get back to the Guardian HQ alive! Both of us!” More shots hit Vent’s back, but he kept bearing the pain.

“Vent…” Aile looked down, which brought up her fears again, “B-But… the hole… I…”

“Trust me…” Vent told her before he winced in pain as he was shot on the back once more, “If you’re afraid… just… look at me… I’ll pull you up to safety…”

Aile looked at Vent’s eyes and saw that it wasn’t pain that was shown, though he had taken damage from helping her up as he was being shot by the flying Galleons. Vent slowly stood up as he had successfully pulled Aile out and took her to the platform before turning to the flying Galleons and slashed them into pieces.

Aile threw herself towards Vent’s back, hugging him from behind, “Thank you…” Vent was taken in by surprise and blushed, having a girl hugging him from behind, “I-If it wasn’t for you… then I… I…”

Vent heard her sniffed as she cried on his back and turned to her, giving her a hug back, “It’s okay, don’t worry… I’ll protect you… always…”

“Thanks Vent…” Aile broke the hug and smiled before wiping her tears away, “Shall we continue the mission now?”

“Yeah,” Vent nodded before they jumped to the last platform with Mechaniloid remains as Vent had destroyed them and jumped to the other end of the hole before heading through the door leading to the data room.

The room was filled with machines and shelves with broken tubes in it. The ground started shaking as a giant Pseudoroid approached the two. The Pseudoroid had thick brown armor covering its entire body other than its face, which resembled the face of a rhino. The Pseudoroid came to a stop once he was right in front of the two Guardians.

“You’ve come at last… The fooslish Mega Men who have sided with the Guardians. All of the data that was found here is now in my internal data disk. I just need to destroy this room with you in it, and all of the loose ends will be tied up. I am the Model P Pseudoroid, Protectos! I will crush anyone that stands in our way!” The Pseudoroid, Protectos, said before he slammed his foot in front of them to intimidate them.

“Aile! Let’s use Model ZX to take this ugly giant down!” Vent suggested before they both transformed into their ZX form.

Aile ran ahead and reached Protectos’ back, shooting his back with her buster. The shots bounced off the hard armor, leaving no damage at all. Vent jumped towards one of the shelves to kick himself up before landing a rolling slash on the Pseudoroid’s face, leaving some scars from the saber. Protectos shot out some bombs at Vent, who was still airborne, but Aile had shot them away from him, making them explode on the Pseudoroid’s head.

“Nice shot!” Vent said as he landed on another shelf and turned to her with a smile, “Thanks!”

“That’s for saving me earlier!” Aile replied with a smile before turning to Protectos, who had sent out a big missile bomb at her.

“Not on my watch!” Vent jumped down from the shelf and ran towards Aile as the missile got closer to her even after she ran away from it to dodge.

Vent pulled out his buster and charged it fast, before releasing it at the missile, knocking it off course and hit the wall instead. Rocks fell out due to the explosion and rained down on the three, but Vent and Aile had dodged out of the way. One of the rocks had crushed the Pseudoroid’s chest armor, creating a dent on it.

Aile charged her buster and aimed it at the Pseudoroid’s chest while Vent went to his back with his saber already charged. Another missile was about to come out from the hole on his back, but Vent had slammed his saber down and made the missile explode in the Pseudoroid’s body. As Protectos was still recovering from his own missile’s explosion, Aile had landed a charged shot on his dented chest armor.

Vent went back to Aile’s side and turned to her with his buster ready, “Ready for the last shot?”

“As ready as ever!” Aile replied with a smile before aiming her buster at Protectos’ head.

“DOUBLE CHARGED SHOT!!!” Vent and Aile released their charged shots in unison, before they merged to form an even bigger shot and hit Protectos’ head, destroying half of its face.

“Ugh! No! How could anyone break through my armor! Rrraaagh!” Protectos’ body glowed for a moment before it exploded, destroying the whole data room.

The moonlight shone in the room as the roof had been destroyed, shining upon the two Guardians along with a dropped data disk and a purple Biometal floating above it, _“_ _Oh how the mighty have fallen. Strong armor is nothing compared to the_ _power of will. It will take some time before I am capable of recovering the_ _password. The password will be ready when you need it._ _”_

The Biometal turned into a purple light and went into Aile’s Biometal Model P, merging together with the Biometal. Vent picked up the dropped data disk and examined it, “Looks like this is the only data disk left here… But the data is corrupt, I can’t read it.”

 _“We might still be able to recover it here in the HQ,”_ Prairie told Vent through the communicator, _“Please send it here along with the mission report.”_

“Okay,” Vent ended the connection, and then his stomach started growling, “Oh, great… It’s already nighttime and yet I haven’t eaten lunch yet!”

Aile giggled after seeing Vent’s reaction and went over to him, “We can still get something to eat in the HQ’s cafeteria, so don’t worry! They’re still going to serve food until midnight!”

“Now that’s some great news!” Vent cheered, before he suddenly remembered something, “By the way, how did you get yourself into that situation when you were hanging the edge of the platform?”

Aile let out a sigh, “I honestly don’t want to speak about it, but… I guess it’s okay if I let you know one thing…”

“One… thing…?” Vent asked curiously, “And that is…?”

Aile took a deep breath before answering, “Well… I’m actually afraid of heights… And with my hand filled with cold sweat, I couldn’t pull myself up…”

“I see…” Vent nodded in understanding, “Sorry that I had to force you into going to high places… If I had known better, I would never let myself force you to do it…”

“It’s alright,” Aile gave him a smile, “I can’t blame you since you don’t even know,” Aile walked past Vent and turned back to him, “Come on, let’s file in our report and get something to eat!”

“Yeah! Finally!” Vent cheered before he dashed past her in excitement.

Aile saw him go and smiled to herself, _‘He’s so childish, yet such a caring person…’_ Aile looked up at the moon through the broken roof, _‘Mom… I think… I have an eye on someone now… on someone very special to me…’_


	13. Blue Ocean

The next morning came, and Vent headed towards the command center to find out about the new missions and expected to see Aile already there waiting for him. As Vent came in, he was surprised as he only saw Prairie along with the operators in the room. Prairie turned around her chair as she noticed that someone had come into the room.

“It’s good to see you here…” Prairie noticed that only Vent was behind her, “Vent? It’s such a surprise to see you here earlier than Aile.”

“Not you two Prairie…” Vent let out a sigh and frowned, “Is it really that weird for me to wake up earlier than Aile?”

Before Prairie could answer, the door slid open and Aile came into the room, “Sorry I’m late, Prairie! I don’t even know why I overslept this morning!”

“Ah, yes…” Prairie coughed, “It’s a good thing that you two are here now. Yesterday, the Guardian HQ’s radar had detected another Biometal signature along with another data disk containing the other half of the recon unit report. I need you to head to Area J, the ocean side of the forest. You might need to stay underwater during the whole mission, so I’ve prepared some underwater supplies for you in the transerver room.”

“Okay, we’ll be on our way!” Aile turned to Vent, “Let’s go!”

Vent and Aile headed toward the transerver to start packing, with Vent suddenly remembering something, “Oh yeah, since we’re going to be underwater for the whole mission, we’re gonna need Model L so we can save the time walking around on the bottom of the ocean!”

“I think that’s a great idea!” Aile pulled out Model L from her pocket to check, “Okay, the Biometal’s here,” Aile turned back to Vent, “In case our opponent uses ice-based attack, we might need Model F. Do you have it with you this time?”

“Yep, I’m not going to forget bringing any of the Biometals again!” Vent pulled out Model F from his pocket to show it to her before putting in back in, “We make a pretty good team now, don’t you think?”

“Yeah…” Aile slowly nodded and turned to him, “I guess we did… Now, shall we go?”

Vent nodded and the two of them teleported to ocean side of the forest. They pulled out their small oxygen tanks before they transformed into Model LX, with each having blue armor and aqua propellers on their helmets. They dived into the ocean, using their propellers to help them swim as they travelled underwater, passing through aquatic Mechaniloids.

Aile stopped swimming for a moment to look around before approaching Vent, “I think we can go back here through that,” Aile pointed below them, “There’s an underwater tunnel there, right below us now.”

“Wow, you’re right! Good eye, you have there, Aile!” Vent put both of his hands on Aile’s shoulder as he smiled at her, “I’ll count on you to find some good paths for us to use, okay?”

“U-Uh… yeah!” Aile looked away nervously, “D-Don’t worry, you can count on me!”

“Great! Let’s get moving again!” Vent let go of her shoulders and swam away.

Aile paused for a moment as she saw Vent swimming away before sighing sadly, _‘I guess… We’re nothing more than just friends and partners…’_

Aile caught up to Vent, who had pulled out his staff, “Great…” Aile swam to his side and saw the fish-like Mechaniloid identical to the ones in the lake, “These territorial fish Mechaniloids again…” A few shrimp-like Mechaniloids and turtle-like Mechaniloids joined in the swarm, “… and friends…”

As the fish Mechaniloids were swimming towards them, Vent and Aile used their propellers to swim out of the way before spinning their staffs to destroy them. One of the turtle Mechaniloids shot out a small bomb out of its shell, which broke into three pieces going different directions. Aile was quick enough to swim out of the way, but Vent was hit by one part of the bomb.

Vent was knocked back and was about to hit the wall of spikes behind him, but he quickly reactivated his propellers and swam away from the spiked wall. Vent swam towards two incoming shrimp Mechaniloids and spun his staff, cutting through them. Vent quickly propelled towards Aile’s back, where another shrimp Mechaniloid was coming at her.

“Look out, shrimpy!” Vent yelled before thrusting down his staff to cut through the shrimp Mechaniloid.

Aile turned as she heard Vent’s yell and saw the shrimp Mechaniloid’s remains sank, “Thanks!”

Vent gave her a thumb up before he swam up and cut off an anemone-like Mechaniloid sitting on a reef right above a hole on the reef before he and Aile proceeded through the hole into an area with more fish Mechaniloids, shrimp Mechaniloids, and turtle Mechaniloids. Vent deactivated his propellers and landed on the bottom of the ocean and dashed through the anemone Mechaniloid with his spinning staff.

Aile continued propelling above Vent as she spun her own staff in different angles, cutting through the Mechaniloids easily. The remains fell on Vent, who looked up while dodging the falling remains as saw how Aile had swum away from the Mechaniloids while spinning her staff around in different angles to cover more range of attack.

 _‘Wow…’_ Vent looked up at Aile in awe, _‘She’s like dancing in the water… and she dances very gracefully and beautifully…’_

Aile had cleaned up the Mechaniloids on her level and swam towards Vent, who was still staring at her, “W-What are you looking at?” Aile looked away, hiding away her blush.

“N-Nothing! Come on, I think the Biometal and the data disk is close by!” Vent nervously replied before turning away to walk farther on the bottom of the ocean as Aile swam next to him.

They passed through another hole on the reef and were stopped by a giant blue Pseudoroid. It had a body with the shape of a face on it with a pair of big propellers on its sides. Three long spikes spread down from its body, with the left and right spikes much shorter than the middle one. The Pseudoroid swam lower, looking down at the two Guardians who was a lot smaller than he was before laughing.

“So you’re the great Mega Men that keep trying to interfere with our plans. I suppose it’s asking too much to expect people so young to understand what we’re trying to do. You should respect your elders and listen to us old folks,” The Pseudoroid told the two, his voice echoing in the area.

Vent let out a sigh before folding his arms, looking annoyed, “Why should we even bother listening to shady types of old folks like you are? What you do is just hide the truth, so why do you even expect any respect from us?”

The Pseudoroid laughed once more, “Sometimes ignorance is bliss little ones! I am the Model L Pseudoroid, Leganchor. It looks like I’ll have to teach you some respect.”

Vent and Aile turned to each other with a grin before Aile spoke up, “Should we teach _him_ a lesson instead?”

Vent nodded, “You bet!”

“Whatever it is you’re planning behind my back, you’re not going to ignore my lessons!” The Pseudoroid, Leganchor, opened up the mouth on his body and two ice dragons came out.

“Rock ON! Model FX!” Orange armor replaced Vent’s and Aile’s light blue ones and a pair of red knuckle busters appeared in their hands.

Vent and Aile jumped out of the way towards different directions, but the ice dragons kept following them. Vent jumped higher and aimed the ice dragon from above, destroying it, and Aile did the same as well. Vent landed back on the ground and charged both of his busters before he jumped up and slammed his left buster on Leganchor’s body.

Leganchor was pushed back, heading towards Aile as she was standing behind him, but she countered by slamming her own left buster on the middle spike. Vent jumped up and was about to slam his right buster on Leganchor’s body once more, but Leganchor’s eyes on his body had shot out blindfolding yellow beam before ice chains with dragon heads on their ends bit Vent’s right arm, freezing it.

Vent landed back on the ground and looked at his frozen arm, _‘Their bites are freezing me!’_ Vent noticed a shadow over his head and looked up as Leganchor had swum above him and started pulling him in with his propellers, _‘I-It’s pulling me in!’_ Vent looked up and saw that he was being pulled towards one of the smaller spikes.

Aile quickly dashed under Leganchor and was about to aim her buster up at Leganchor’s body, but she was pulled in as well, _‘I… can’t fight the current! Those propellers are too strong!’_

“Yikes!” Vent fell back to the ground with his right half of his body frozen before the propellers stopped pulling Aile in.

“Vent!” Aile approached Vent worriedly, “Are you okay?”

“I’ll… I’ll be fine…” Vent struggled to get up due to the weight of the ice on his body before he managed to stand and looked up at Leganchor, “Shooting him in overdrive mode should finish him quick…”

“Okay, leave it to me!” Aile aimed her busters up, “You rest over there, Vent! You’ve done well so far!”

“O… kay…” Vent looked at her as she activated Model FX’s overdrive mode and started shooting up on the Pseudoroid, who had sent out a pair of ice dragons at her, “Look out-OW!” Vent’s effort to approach her failed as he lost his balance due to the ice and fell, but the fall broke some of the ice, “Alright, that’ll do fine!” Vent pointed both of his busters up at Leganchor, “Overdrive!”

Vent and Aile began shooting in overdrive mode and destroyed the ice dragons, before they deactivated their overdrive modes and exchanged looks, nodding afterwards. Vent charged his left buster while Aile charged her right one and waited until the propellers started pulling them in. As they were getting closer to Leganchor’s body, Vent and Aile slammed their busters together, knocking Leganchor into the ground before his body broke apart.

“Why… Why do you fight so hard? Why do you risk your life for those fools? Youth is wasted… on the young…” Leganchor’s body parts glowed for a moment before they exploded, leaving a light blue Biometal floating above a data disk.

 _“How could anyone give my power to someone like that!?_ _”_ The Biometal, Model L, suddenly burst out angrily before noticing the surprised looks on Vent’s and Aile’s faces, _“_ _I_ _’m sorry, it_ _’ll_ _take some time to recover the password. I_ _’ll make sure it_ _’s available before you_ _have to take on Model W._ _”_

The Biometal turned into a light blue light before it went towards Aile’s Biometal Model L and merged with the Biometal. Aile approached the data disk and picked it up before reaching for her communicator, “Prairie, we found the disk with the recon unit report on it. I’ll try and read the data.”

 _“Yes please,”_ Prairie replied from the other side.

_“The recon unit was wiped out by the act of one of our own. His name is_ _Serpent and he was always the one most interested in the Model W fragment. He_ _erased the research data and vanished with the Biometal. I_ _’ve never heard of a_ _Maverick that powerful. Model W must have transformed him into_ _‘something else_ _’._ _We now know that Model W has the power to create an enemy much more terrifying_ _than the Mavericks. I only hope that our sacrifice bought the commander enough_ _time to escape. I don_ _’t have much longer. I pray that this data doesn_ _’t fall_ _into the wrong hands._ _”_

“So Serpent was involved in this…” Vent spoke up.

 _“Yes… That’s why Serpent was awfully worried about the data leaking out,”_ Prairie added, _“But we can’t let the information contained in it to get out until we know what exactly it is. For now, please send the disk along with the mission report.”_

“Okay,” Vent turned to Aile, “Come on, let’s go back through that underwater tunnel!”

“Yeah!” Aile nodded in agreement before noticing something, “But where’s the entrance?”

“Y-Yeah… I wonder where it might be…” Vent replied, looking around in confusion.

“Vent! Aile! We have another problem!” Prairie’s voice was suddenly heard from the communicators.

“What’s the situation, Prairie?” Aile asked.

 _“I got a report from the unit on the ground area that there was a dig going near the city, and it seems to have caused a disturbance to the lava flow in the dig site. There’s also a Biometal signature, so I need you two to head there to stop the dig and recover the Biometal part!”_ Prairie explained and ordered.

“Roger! We’re on our way!” Vent turned to Aile, “It looks like we’re going back to the way we come from…”

Aile shook his head and smiled, “There’s no need for that,” Aile turned around and pointed at a hole right behind the spot where Leganchor exploded, “The entrance is that way.”

“Nice!” Vent patted Aile on her back before he put an arm around her, “Another nice job finding a hidden path!”

“T-Thanks…”


	14. Lava Crisis!

Vent and Aile had teleported themselves to the city, and headed towards the upper section of the city where the dig site was, both in their human forms as they didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention from the people in the city as they passed. The temperature slowly increased as they headed closer and closer towards the dig site, which reached the underground.

“This is really hot in here!” Aile complained before turning to Vent, “Can’t we do something about it?”

“There’s nothing we can do,” Vent turned away to look at their surroundings, “Besides, this dig site is surrounded by volcanoes,” Vent pulled out two Biometals, “We might need to jump down to reach the deeper part of the dig site, so we might need Model HX.”

“Rock ON! Model HX!” Vent and Aile transformed into their HX forms before heading deeper into the dig site.

 _“Vent! Aile!”_ Prairie’s voice was heard from the communicators, stopping the two Guardians from running, _“I’ve got a report from Maquereau, the Guardian who had just come back from the site, telling that the dig site continues underground. Find a way to go down there.”_

“We’re on it,” Aile ended the communication before looking around, “There are some geysers up ahead. They might give us a clue about how to get down there.”

“Geysers, huh?” Vent asked himself as he and Aile approached the geysers, “If we can find a big one, maybe we can use the hole to get to the underground.”

“But the water from these geysers is really hot!” Aile turned to Vent while pointing at the geysers, “The water was heated by the magma underground, which makes it too hot for us to get through even if we use Model LX, if that’s what you thinking.”

“Well then, any ideas?” Vent asked, still confused.

“Just like you said before, we still need to find a bigger geyser. We need to wait for the water to be completely out before we could jump into the hole,” Vent and Aile turned the moment they heard a loud splashing sound, which came from a big geyser behind the smaller geysers, “I guess that one’ll work. Come on, let’s hurry there!”

Vent and Aile headed for the big geyser and waited for a few seconds for the water to go back underground before they jumped in, but Vent noticed that Aile was hesitating, “What? I thought that this was your idea.”

“W-Well, yeah…” Aile looked down, “But how far down is it?”

Vent let out a sigh before he grabbed Aile’s hand, which made her blush, before they both jumped down into the hole. Aile clutched Vent’s arm very tightly and closed her eyes shut, before they both landed on a platform and Aile reopened her eyes to see a round object on the platform, sitting right in front of them.

“Is that… a Galleon head?” Vent approached it to get a closer look, not noticing that hot lava had started coming up to the platform.

“Vent! The lava!” Aile warned, noticing that more lava had come up to the platform.

“The lava…?” Vent looked down and saw that lava was only a few inches from his feet and quickly backed away, “Yikes!”

The lava swallowed the Galleon head, but instead of melting it, the lava hardened and left the Galleon head trapped inside. Hands formed from the hardened lava before a head was formed on the top. The hardened lava monster stayed still as Vent and Aile watched it without any motion.

“What is that thing!?” Aile asked, looking up at the lava monster.

“I don’t know…” Vent pulled out his shorter saber, which got the attention of the monster, “But I think this guy wants to fight!” Vent dashed to the monster’s head and slashed it, but it barely did any damage, “Darn it! Its head is too hard!”

Unknown to Vent, a hand made of lava had come up from under the platform and was about to catch him. Aile noticed the lava hand and charged her short saber, sending out and electric ball to shock it and keep it away from Vent. The lava hand instead turned to Aile, trying to grab her, but Aile ran towards the wall behind her and kicked herself behind the lava hand as it hit the wall and the lava fell out of the platform.

The monster’s hardened lava body broke up, leaving the Galleon head as the lava fell out of the platform. Vent took the chance and charged in with his two charged sabers before letting out two electric balls at it to paralyze the head and slashed it multiple times, cutting it into million pieces. The head pieces turned into lava before the platform the two Guardians broke, making the two fall into another platform connected to hard soil.

“This… this must be the dig site…” Aile looked ahead at the path with the hard soil before turning to Vent, who was looking at the opposite direction as she was with his mouth open, “What, did you find something?” Vent pointed ahead, making Aile turn to the direction where Vent had pointed and saw big wave of lava coming towards them, “RUN!!!”

Aile yelled before the two of them made a mad dash away from the wave of lava before it could melt them. Vent was a little ahead of Aile, who stopped before the gaps their crossed as they ran away from the lava. Vent finally stopped so that Aile could catch up to him, but as they turned ahead, a big pool of lava was right in front of them with some lava geysers shooting out.

“No! We can’t just give up here!” Vent turned to the lava in panic, which was only a few meters from them before he turned to Aile, who was looking at the lava pool with a terrified look, _‘I can’t let her cross the pool alone, not when there are melting geysers up ahead!’_ Vent pulled out his short saber and held it tightly with his right hand while charging it, _‘Come on, Vent! Be brave! That lava is gonna catch up to us sooner or later!’_

Vent quickly grabbed Aile’s arm and put it around his shoulder as he put his arm around her shoulders before he jumped and air-dashed towards the lava geysers. Vent quickly swung his saber and shot out an electric ball, preventing the geysers from coming up to their level. Aile put her other arm around Vent’s waist as they crossed another pool of lava, drawing herself closer to him out of reflexes.

Vent activated his overdrive mode as more lava geysers were shooting out and blocked their way, slashing them so that their path was wide open before landing on a small platform. As the lava was drawing closer and closer to them, Vent air-dashed quickly through a series of lava pools, but luckily they hadn’t got any lava geysers blocking their way. As they hit a turn to the left, Vent landed on his right foot before he kicked himself and Aile out of the way, making the wave of lava hit the wall instead and broke through it, creating a hole for the lava to go through.

Vent and Aile sighed in relief, before noticing how close they were to each other and backed away. There was silence between them before Aile, a red blush on her face, decided to speak up, “T-Thanks for the help, but… y-you don’t have to keep holding me!”

“H-Hey!” Vent turned to Aile, blushing as well, “You’re the one who cuddled closer to me!”

As Aile was about to continue with her argument, the ground suddenly shook, “W-What now!?”

The ground in front of them suddenly cracked before it opened up into a hole and a figure jumped out. The figure was a Pseudoroid with his height about half of their height and had red armor mixed with purple color. The Pseudoroid turned to them revealing his two big arms and clawed short legs before he looked up at them.

“Hmm? Oh… It’s you. You’re the ones goin’ around stealin’ the Biometal. I could feel your presences a mile away. It was drilling straight through the ground to me. Lord Serpent said there was an even more powerful Biometal buried deep beneath the surface. But! Nothin’ is comin’ up! I am the Model F Pseudoroid, Flammole. I’ll take ya down and the Biometal you stole will be back, safe in our hands!” The Pseudoroid, Flammole, introduced himself before he put his arms in front of him.

“As if we’re gonna let you!” Vent rejected before he jumped away to dodge a fireball shot out at him.

As Vent kept him busy by dodging the fireballs the Pseudoroid shot out, Aile snuck up behind him and landed a slash on his back. Flammole turned to her and shot out a flamethrower at her, who rolled out of the way to dodge. As the flamethrower disappeared, Flammole dug a hole under him and sent rocks flying at Vent and Aile.

Flammole came out of the ceiling right above Vent, who didn’t notice him as he jumped down. While Vent was down, Flammole slammed his arms to the ground and fire pillars started coming out of the ground. Vent quickly got up and dodged the pillars by moving away from them, while Aile just stayed away from the area.

Vent activated his overdrive mode and charged towards Flammole, who was taken by surprise as he slammed his sabers down on his head. Flammole was knocked back from the attack, not noticing that Aile had air-dashed down towards him and land another slash on his head. Vent followed up with his three-slash combo in his overdrive mode, cutting up Flammole’s body before he deactivated his overdrive mode.

“I see now... You weren’t the one I sensed… It musta been… Model W? Or… Is it somethin’ else entirely!? Aaagh!” Flammole let out a yell before his body glowed and exploded, leaving an orange Biometal floating in his place.

 _“What a waste that a loser like that had my power! Sorry, but_ _it_ _’ll be some time before I can recover that password. Don_ _’t worry, I_ _’ll get it_ _for you_ _,”_ The orange Biometal, Model F, turned into an orange light before it went towards Vent’s Biometal Model F and merged with the Biometal.

“Okay, looks like we’re done here…” A thudding sound was heard and Aile turned to the sound’s source immediately to see that Vent, in his human form, had collapsed on the ground, “VENT!” Aile went over to him to check up on him before she heard a soft snoring sound and smiled, _‘He must be very tired…’_

 _“Vent, Aile, did you stop the dig?”_ Prairie’s voice was suddenly heard from Aile’s communicator.

“Yeah, we’ve defeated the one who was responsible for the dig,” Aile transformed back into her human form and put Vent’s head on her lap, “Thanks to someone, we made it to the Pseudoroid responsible for the dig before the big wave of lava melted us into nothing…”

 _“MELTED!?”_ Prairie asked worriedly, half yelling on the communicator.

“Don’t worry, Prairie,” Aile comforted the Guardian commander, “We’re both okay, and things up there should stabilize soon as well. I’m going to report in now, so that Vent can get a better place to sleep rather than on…” Aile noticed that she was stroking his hair as she laid his head on her lap and blushed, “… o-on my lap…”

Aile could hear Prairie’s laughing from the other side, “Alright… and thank you for doing such a good job, you two…”

“Sure… no problem…” Aile ended the connection before she put Vent’s arm around her shoulders and tried getting up, only to fall back due to Vent’s weight, _‘He’s… heavy…’_ Aile gently laid Vent back on the ground, “I guess I’ll just leave him here for a bit to report before I ask Prairie to get us out of here…”

As Aile walked away, she suddenly heard Vent talking and turned back to him, smiling as he talked in his sleep, “Aile… I’ll always protect you…”


	15. The Frightening Storm

Unlike the usually clear sky, the bright blue sky was replaced by dark sky in the morning. Rain was pouring down heavily as the wind blew humid air around the pink-colored airship, the Guardian HQ. Thunder struck down, rocking the Guardian HQ a little in its flight. Even with a storm, the Guardian HQ kept itself flying in midair.

The constant rocking and the sounds of thunder finally woke the male brown-haired Guardian up. Vent looked around and saw that he was in his room in the Guardian HQ, _‘I thought that I passed out back in the dig site… I guess someone must’ve carried me here, but when did that happen anyway…?’_ Vent looked up at small gap on his ceiling, which was now covered with glass, _‘It’s a really bad storm outside…’_

Vent took a bath before getting dressed and headed for the command center. Inside the command center, Aile and Prairie had already been waiting for him. Aile noticed him coming, but Prairie was the first one to greet him as he came in, “Good morning, Vent. You must be very exhausted today that you passed out last night.”

“I guess I did…” Vent laughed nervously while rubbing the back of his head, “Anyway, what’s with the storm?”

The sound of thunder was suddenly heard, and Aile let out a loud gasp before hanging on to Prairie’s door. Feeling that Vent and Prairie was watching her, she let go of the door, “I-I’m fine! No problems at all!” Aile turned to Prairie, “Please continue!”

“Alright,” Prairie nodded before turning back to Vent, “This storm is no ordinary storm. We’ve detected the source of this storm to be coming from Area I, right at the back of the power plant. We’ve also detected the last Biometal signature along with some life signs coming from the area. I’m sorry to ask, but can the two of you check this area?”

“H-Huh? Us?” Aile asked nervously, once again getting Vent’s and Prairie’s attention, “No, no problem! We’ll go there right now, right Vent?” Aile turned to Vent, who stared at her for a moment before giving her a slow nod, “Let’s go and end this quick, then!”

“Yeah…” Vent said doubtfully as he saw that Aile wasn’t feeling like herself before she suddenly grabbed his hand and dragged him out forcefully, “H-Hey! Stop it! I can walk on my own, okay!?”

Aile stopped dragging him in front of the transerver room door and took a deep breath to calm herself down before the sound of thunder was heard once more. Aile jumped in surprise before she shakily turned to Vent, “C-Come on…”

Vent and Aile teleported themselves to the back area of the power plant, where the entrance to Area I was. Rain was pouring heavily on the whole area, but the Mechaniloids running around the area didn’t seem to be bothered by the rain at all. Strong wind blew in the area, making the two Guardians almost lose their footing. The loud sound of thunder was heard once more, and Aile instinctively grabbed Vent’s arm.

Vent looked at his arm where Aile was holding on to, “W-What’s with you?”

“Not your business…” Aile replied shortly, tightening her grip as more thunder sounds were heard, “L-Let’s not waste any more time here!” Aile pointed a tower-like building ahead with her free hand, “There. Let’s try and look into that building.”

“O-Okay…” Vent nervously replied as he looked at Aile clinging to his arm before pulling out Model X and Model Z, transforming them into their ZX forms.

While Aile was still holding on to Vent’s arm with both of her arms, they only had Vent’s free hand to use the ZX saber to cut through the Mechaniloids coming at them as they slowly headed for the building. With the thunder sounds barely audible in the building, Aile let go of Vent’s arm before letting out along relieved sigh, getting Vent’s attention.

“Are you scared of thunders?” Vent bluntly asked, getting a glare from the female Guardian.

“There’s no way I’m afraid of thunders!” Aile stomped ahead angrily, “Come on! This place needs investigating!”

“Alright, alright!” Vent replied with an irritated tone before he followed Aile deeper into the building, which had gone darker and darker as they went deeper.

“It’s too dark in here…” Aile looked around to find Vent, “Vent, where are you? I think we need to use Model PX to detect our surroundings better…” Aile looked around and hoped for a reply from Vent, but instead felt a hand on her shoulder instead, which surprised her, “W-Who’s there!?”

“Relax, it’s just me!” Vent let out a sigh, “Let’s just use Model PX already. I don’t want to scare you again and get a shot on my head.”

“Okay… wait, how do you know that I’m about to shoot you?” Aile asked again.

“I can feel the end of your buster right between my eyes!” Vent told her in irritation before knocking Aile’s buster away, “Come on, let’s just transform already!”

“Rock ON! Model PX!” Purple armor replaced Vent’s and Aile’s red ones and a white helmet covered most of their heads except for their mouths and eyes.

“Cool!” Vent looked around, “I think I can see a map of the area in my head!”

“Stop fooling around, Vent,” Aile grabbed Vent’s hand before she dragged him away, “It’s this way.”

The two went through a door leading to another dark room, which was filled by a few Mechaniloids. Vent threw a kunai at Mechaniloid, but his throw missed as the Mechaniloid jumped up. Aile threw two kunai at the Mechaniloid as it jumped, with the first crashing it to the ground and the second one finishing it off.

Another one came jumping towards them, but it made a mistake as it jumped up and fell into the small hole in front of it. Aile had jumped across, but Vent stayed back for a moment just to see how far the Mechaniloid fell. Vent soon jumped across, completely ignoring the annoyed Aile, and went through the next door which was far brighter than the previous two rooms.

A wall made of broken pipes blocked their way towards a Galleon Hunter, which hadn’t noticed their presence. More mechanical footsteps were heard from the pipes above them, which made them look up and see that two more Galleon Hunters were patrolling above them. Aile stepped closer towards the broken pipes and slid her fingers on it.

“The buster punch from Model FX should do the trick,” Aile turned to Vent, who was walking towards her.

Vent looked at the broken pipes before touching the cracked parts with his fingers, “Why would we need Model FX, when we can actually do… this!” Vent curled his left hand into a fist and punched through the broken pipes, getting the attention from the Galleon Hunter on the other side, “And now, we can do this!” Vent threw a few kunai at the Galleon Hunter, hitting it on its chest and neck.

“Wow… I never expected Model PX to be a strong model like model FX…” Aile looked at the destroyed pipes as she and Vent passed through.

“Because it isn’t,” Aile turned to Vent in confusion, “I just recently find out that the Biometals power up our physical strengths almost drastically, so I was thinking that maybe even a single punch can break through the pipes.”

“I see…” Aile nodded in understanding before she looked ahead and saw a door, “Come on, let’s go through that door!”

Vent and Aile went through the door, which led to a small room with a part of the walls broken as the storm outside the building was seen. As they were crossing the room, they heard something dropped down behind them and turned to see a female yellow Pseudoroid behind them.

“Let me guess, you’re here to save the poor folks in the next room?” The Pseudoroid asked, getting a nod from the two, “I’m afraid chivalry is dead my dears. They’re valuable sacrifices for the ressurrection of Model W. Cyber-elves exposed to data on fear are the key to reviving Model W. I am the Model H Pseudoroid, Hurricaune! You’re about to become the next sacrifice. Just make sure to scream for me!”

“Rock ON! Model ZX!” Vent and Aile transformed into their ZX forms.

Hurricaune shot out a shockwave from her neck towards them, who jumped out of the way to dodge. Hurricaune jumped up, but Aile had her buster locked on her and charged it. Just as she was about to release her charged shot, thunder struck down and surprised Aile, who missed her shot. Hurricaune dropped down on her, but was knocked away by Vent’s saber as she was about to land.

Hurricaune shot out a few more shockwaves from her neck, with one of them hitting Vent and knocking him against the wall. Aile let out a few shots at Hurricaune, who had jumped up to dodge, missing her whole shots. Vent got back to his feet and jumped towards the wall, kicking himself towards Hurricaune before he attacked her with his rolling slash.

Hurricaune took the attack and landed in the middle of the room before summoning a whirlwind to suck the two of them towards her. A series of shockwaves was sent out towards them, knocking both of them into the wall. Just as the two were about to get up and charged in for another attack, Hurricaune had sent more shockwaves towards them.

The whirlwind disappeared and Hurricaune jumped up, landing herself on Vent, pinning him down to the ground. Aile stood behind her with her charged buster ready, but more thunder struck down and Aile closed her eyes just as she was about to shoot, barely missing Hurricaune. With her eyes still closed, she didn’t notice that Hurricaune had turned to her and sent a shockwave at her.

Aile almost fell to the ground, but Vent had quickly caught her in his arms, “V-Vent!?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be okay,” Vent let out a smile before turning back to Hurricaune, who had jumped once more.

As Vent’s close range saber attack was useless, Aile pointed her buster up and released a charged shot at Hurricaune, before following it up with a series of shots. Hurricaune dropped down, already badly damaged, and was about to summon another whirlwind when Vent suddenly cut her arm off. Aile followed him up with another charged shot, taking out her other arm along with a part of her body.

“Hah… Not bad… Do whatever you want with the people in the next room… It won’t matter anyway. Model W’s awakening will still come to pass!” Hurricaune’s body glowed for a moment before exploding, leaving a green Biometal floating in her place.

 _“It looks like you_ _’ve recovered the password and my power. I am_ _grateful. However, it will take time to reassemble the password into something_ _you can use. Please be patient_ _,”_ The Biometal, Model H, said before turning into a green light and merged with Vent’s Biometal Model H.

Vent smiled to himself before turning to Aile, “Looks like we’ve got all of the Biometal parts.”

Aile nodded and smiled before turning to the door on the opposite side of the room, “Yeah, but we’re not done here just yet. She said that the people should be behind this door.”

Vent and Aile went through the door and saw a big cage with a few people in it, sealed in with a metal lock. Vent turned to Aile before pointing at the lock, “Want to try and shoot the lock into pieces?”

“Sure,” Aile let out a smile before punching the metal lock with her bare hands, releasing the people trapped inside, “but that single punch would do!”

A boy with glasses came out of the cage, followed by the others trapped inside before turning to Vent and Aile, “W-we’re saved!!! We were just about to become Cyber-elves! Thank you for rescuing us!”

Vent looked at him in confusion, “‘Become’ Cyber-elves? What are you talking about?”

The boy turned to Vent with a frown and a frightened look, “Those bad guys, they steal our memories and change us into Cyber-elves. They were also trying to scare us before we changed. I saw them… I saw the others changing one-by-one into those Cyber-elves.”

 _“So that’s why they were able to create so many of them… They’re even crueler that I’ve ever imagined…”_ Prairie paused for a moment before continuing, _“We’ll teleport them back to the city. Thank you for saving them, Vent, Aile.”_

“No problem!” Aile replied before the people were teleported out.

“As for the two of you, you can file in your report and give the Biometals to Fleuve to be examined. You two can take a day off today, but please don’t tire yourselves up,” Prairie told the two before ending the connection.

“Yeah! A day off!” Vent cheered before turning to Aile, “Let’s report the mission so that I can go for an all-you-can-eat buffet!”

“Hey, that sounds great! Can I join in?” Aile asked in excitement.

“Sure, come on!”


	16. Model W’s Core

“Vent and Aile, please come to the command center,” The voice of an operator was heard through the intercom.

Vent and Aile did as told by the operator and headed straight to the command center. Prairie was standing in front of her chair, already waiting for them, “Vent, Aile, after a few days of your hard work, we finally have all six Biometal fragments. And I want to thank you for that.”

“Sure, no problem!” Vent replied with a smile, “So, what about the data disk we found in the research lab? Did you find anything in it?”

Prairie nodded before explaining, “Yes, it’s actually a report of the Biometals. It describes Model X, Model Z, Model W… Everything about the Biometals, including its true nature.”

“The Biometals’… true nature…?” Aile asked in confusion.

“Yes…” Prairie replied before she continued with her explanation, “In the war hundreds of years ago, there was a man who wanted to conquer the world. He created a giant battle station in space, or known as Ragnarok, to carry out his scheme and fused himself with it. He was challenged by a legendary hero and was defeated. Ragnarok fell and burned in the atmosphere, falling to the earth like shooting stars…”

“Wait, so that means… that Model W…” Aile realized, feeling shocked by her own conclusion.

Prairie nodded, “Yes, the soul of that man contained a fragment of Ragnarok. That’s Model W. Sis considered it as a threat and created the Biometals from the powers of legendary heroes from that age in order to fight it…”

“And she succeeded… What happens next?” Vent asked.

“I don’t know… That’s where the data ends…” Prairie replied in disappointement, “I’m sorry…”

Model X floated out of Vent’s pocket and faced Prairie, _“We Biometals don’t remember what happened either. The memories after our creation were erased,”_ Model X turned to Vent and Aile, _“We have all assembled the passwords, so now you can enter the ruins where the Model W Core lies.”_

“Great! Looks like we need to go there now,” Aile turned to Vent, “They must be digging closer to the core by now…”

“Alright, please be careful you two!” Prairie told them before the Guardians left through the transerver and straight to the entrance to the ruins, which was blocked by a big gate with some locks with symbols on it.

“Model W is near… I can almost feel it…” Vent commented as he and Aile looked at the gate.

“Yeah, same here…” Aile replied before turning to Vent, “I hope we’re ready for this…”

Vent smiled and turned to Aile, who turned to him as well, “We’re already as ready as ever. After going through this far, there’s no way we’re going back!” Vent turned back to the gate, “Everyone, let’s do it!” The Biometals floated out of Vent’s and Aile’s pockets, floating around them.

Model H started glowing in green color, _“_ _I am the wind that blows through the sky, Ventus Airus,”_ The light landed on a lock.

Model L started glowing in light blue color, _“_ _I am the water that flows across the land, Glacius Passio_ _,”_ The light landed on another lock.

Model F started glowing in orange color, _“_ _I am the fire that brings heat to all life, Flamma Wies_ _,”_ The light landed on another lock.

Model P started glowing in purple color, _“_ _I am the shadow that never leaves the side of justice, Umbra Profess_ _,”_ The light landed on another lock.

Model X started glowing in blue color, _“_ _I am the light that illuminates all possibilities, Lumine Infinitus_ _,”_ The light landed on another lock.

Model Z started glowing in red color, _“_ _I am the courage that fights for beliefs, Fortitude Creed_ _,”_ The light landed on another lock, before merging with the other lights and landed on the last lock on top of the gate. The Biometal went back to Vent’s and Aile’s pockets before they transformed into their ZX forms and went through the gate.

Vent and Aile went through the gate, and were surrounded by many types of Mechaniloids. Vent pulled out his saber at the Galleon hiding in a spiked metal barrel, but the barrel itself didn’t take any damage, “They’re not just any weak Mechaniloids we’ve encountered so far…” Vent looked through the Mechaniloids, which seemed to be hundreds of them, “This is an army of tough Mechaniloids with the purpose of blocking us from the core!”

“We have no other choice but to fight through!” Aile pulled out her buster, “We have to hurry and reach the core before Serpent’s gang does!”

Vent bluntly charged at the hiding Galleon and kept slashing the barrel, which blocked any damage from Vent’s saber. Once the Galleon finally came out of the barrel, Vent madly slashed it into pieces, leaving an empty metal barrel before continuing to slash a few incoming rolling Mechaniloids heading towards him and Aile.

Aile distanced herself from the Mechaniloids, shooting them away with her regular shots from far away. A gem-like Mechaniloid suddenly appeared above her, falling down on her before it was followed by more identical Mechaniloids. Aile was pushed by the weight of the smaller Mechaniloids and rolled away from them before releasing a charged shot at them, but they disappeared before the attack could hit them.

More of the gem Mechaniloids appeared above Vent and Aile, who dashed away to safety before they could fall on them. The two tried dashing away, only to be blocked by more Mechaniloids. Aile charged her ZX buster and released it, opening up a path for her and Vent to pass through the army of Mechaniloids.

As Vent and Aile were running away from the Mechaniloids, Vent looked back and saw that the Mechaniloids were closing in on them, “Great. We can’t fight these persistent guys and reach Model W’s core in time! Plus we’re completely outnumbered!”

“Vent! Can you run faster?” Aile turned to Vent, who was running behind her, “You have to run faster or they’ll catch up to you!”

“I’m trying-ugh!” Vent suddenly fell as the gem-like Mechaniloids started falling on them. Vent slowly raised his head and turned to Aile, who had stopped and looked back at him worriedly, “Don’t worry about me! You just go on ahead! I’ll just catch up with you later!”

“Okay…” Aile looked at Vent once more in hesitance before turning back to run, only to activate a trap door under her feet, “Yaaah!!!”

“Aile!” Vent saw as Aile fell, but couldn’t do anything as he was pinned down by the gem Mechaniloids, “I guess I don’t have any choice but to take care of these guys first!”

As Vent continued to fight, the trap door closed itself and let Aile slide down a small dark tunnel. Aile closed her eyes just as she reached the end of the tunnel, landing on the hard ground of the ruins. Aile got up to her feet and opened her eyes before looking around to see that she had landed in a room deep inside the room. Just as she was about to walk around and inspect the room, a familiar big Reploid suddenly teleported into the room.

“Serpent!” Aile noticed the big Reploid, who was Serpent and pointed her buster at her.

“It’s such a shame, but you’re too late!” Serpent raised his arms as Aile looked at him, noticing the huge object behind him, “Witness the power to control the world! The true power of Model W!”

“T-That’s…” Aile put down her buster and backed away, looking up the core.

“Do you feel it!? Its glorious presence is starting to rise! Even the precious Biometal in your possession is insignificant compared to the might of Model W! Finally, the power is mine! All of it!” Serpent let out a laugh before looking up and called out, “Pandora!” A female Reploid with white and blue armor teleported in, standing next to Serpent while holding her staff, “The young lady has honored us with her presence. Make sure to take good care of her.”

Pandora spun her staff, “I will…”

“Project Haven is now in its final stage! Gaze upon the beginning of a brand new age!” Serpent’s laugh echoed in the room before he teleported out of the room, leaving Aile to Pandora.

“Model ZX… Megaman… You will not… interfere…” Pandora flew up before she disappeared from Aile’s sight.

 _‘She’s going to be a hard opponent to track…’_ Aile thought as she charged her buster.

Pandora reappeared above Aile, her armor turned into yellow in color before a line of thunder balls appeared from her staff and dove down straight at Aile. Aile jumped up to avoid the thunder balls, but not noticing that another line of thunder balls were coming at her from her back and hit her. Aile fell with her face down before Pandora disappeared again.

Aile got up to her feet and Pandora reappeared above her with her armor in blue color. Aile noticed that an ice bottle had formed in front of Pandora’s staff before she dropped it on the Guardian’s head, but Aile had moved away to dodge. The ice bottle landed safely on the ground before Pandora flew lower and swung her staff, sending the bottle towards Aile.

Aile jumped away and let the ice bottle crash into the wall before releasing a charged shot at Pandora just before she disappeared. Pandora reappeared far above Aile, her armor in yellow before her head pieces detached themselves and flew lower facing each other. The yellow head pieces shot out thunder at each other, making a thunder line before flying lower towards Aile.

Aile flattened herself on the ground before letting out another charged shot at Pandora, who took the shot and knocked back a little. Pandora regained her balance once more before her head pieces went back to her and she disappeared. Pandora reappeared far above Aile once more, in her blue armor, before her head pieces detached themselves once more.

The head pieces began throwing ice spikes at Aile, who jumped away to dodge while shooting Pandora with her regular shots. As the head pieces went back, Aile let Pandora disappear from her sight and charged her buster. Once she reappeared above her in her yellow armor, Aile quickly released her charged shot before Pandora could release another line of thunder balls.

As Pandora lost her balance, the ceiling above her suddenly broke and sent rocks raining down on her. Between the rain of rocks, Vent jumped down with his charged saber and slammed it hard on Pandora, sending her towards the ground in front of Aile. Vent landed safely between Aile and Pandora, knocking away any remaining rocks before turning to Aile and revealed to her that Vent’s armor had some cracks on it.

“Sorry I missed the fun,” Vent started with a smile, “Those persistent guys just wouldn’t leave me alone!”

“Oh, Vent! I’m just glad to see you’re okay!” Aile gave him a quick hug, which took Vent in surprise.

“O-Oh…” Vent looked away nervously, before noticing that the Model W core sitting in the room was starting to fade away, “Oh no! Model W!”

“The wheel of fate… in motion…” Vent and Aile turned to Pandora, who had just got up to her feet, “No on can stop… our destiny of destruction… Not you… Not Serpent… No one…”

“What!?” Pandora teleported away, leaving the confused Vent and Aile. Aile turned to Vent, who was as confused as she was, “Destiny of destruction!? Just what are they up to!?”

 _“Vent! Aile!”_ Prairie’s voice was heard through their communicators, sounding as if she was in panic, _“I’m sorry to ask you in this late hour, but we need your help! The Slither Inc.’s fleet is on the move!”_

“We couldn’t stop them from the reawakening of Model W in time!” Vent replied as he reached for his communicator, “Prairie, can you catch them?”

“We’ll do what we can,” Prairie paused for a moment before letting out a gasp, “W-What’s this!? There’s a massive Maverick outbreak in the western region of Area D! The readings are off the chart and interfering with our ability to track Model W!”

“SERPENT!!!” Vent yelled angrily.


	17. Highway Bombing

Vent and Aile ran towards Area O, which was filled with raging flames. The Slither Inc.’s black airships were right above the highways, dropping bombs on the building below them. Screams of fear were heard throughout the whole area while some of the Guardian members were in the area, helping the people to escape from the bombings.

Vent turned to the burning streets below them, “This situation is already bad enough… We have to hurry and find whoever it is responsible for this!”

Aile nodded in agreement, “Yeah, we can’t let the innocents die for Serpent’s vile ambitions!”

“Let’s go!” Vent said before he and Aile went through the burning highways.

Mechaniloids came attacking them as they ran closer, but Vent had cleared the way easily with his saber. Just as they were nearing a red Mechaniloid shaped like a mechanical face, Aile quickly charged her buster and released a shot with Vent finishing it off with his rolling slash. More red Mechaniloids stood in their way, breathing fire to block their way, but they simply sidestepped before their weapons destroyed them.

The temperature of the area was slowly rising as more bombs were dropped on the area, creating more fire which spread to more areas. When Vent saw a human figure right behind a wall of fire, he quickly dived down into the fire, reaching to the side where he found an injured Guardian before teleporting him away to safety.

Aile shot away a group of Galleons away, freeing a pair of female Guardians along with a male Guardian before teleporting them out to safety. As Vent and Aile regrouped after saving the remaining Guardians, more Mechaniloids came attacking them. Vent’s cracked armor had weakened his defenses, leaving Aile to cover for him by shooting the fast moving Mechaniloids.

Once they had cleared away the path, Vent and Aile continued ahead into the spot with more flames, but were stopped when a burning car was thrown into their way. They turned to the direction where the car was thrown from and saw the familiar Reploids standing behind them, surrounded by burning flames.

“Prometheus! Pandora!” Vent yelled at the two angrily, “We should’ve known you two would be behind this!”

Prometheus let out a chuckle, “Well, we’ve finally drawn the curtain and have arrived at our final act! You two and Serpent, the three holders of the power fighting each other to the end! Yes… It was just as Model W had foreseen.”

“Wait! What about Serpent!?” Aile asked in confusion.

“Biometal is… a conscious entity. It can… control the weak,” Pandora answered.

“Did you really think Serpent had the willpower to control Model W!?” Prometheus asked before he grinned evilly, “He is just a simple pawn!”

“Serpent… so you’ve been using him from the start!” Vent pointed at Prometheus angrily, who let out a chuckle.

“It’s too late… Model W… is about to awaken…” Pandora said before she and Prometheus flew up above the two.

“Honestly, we really don’t have time to deal with you!” Aile said in irritation before pulling out her ZX buster.

Prometheus let out a laugh before getting his scythe ready, “Then, we’ll keep you two occupied, Model ZX Mega Men!”

“Aile!” Vent turned to Aile, who responded to his call, “You take care of Pandora while I take care of Prometheus!”

“Okay, you be careful Vent! You haven’t fully recovered from the Maverick ambush back in the ruins!” Aile told him, who nodded in return.

Vent charged his saber as Prometheus disappeared, and quickly released it once he reappeared right in front of him, slamming his saber against Prometheus’ scythe. Prometheus let out a grin before he skillfully spun his scythe, making Vent lose his balance as he put his weight on his saber. Prometheus took the chance to land an uppercut on him with the other end of his scythe before he kicked him out of the way.

On the other side of the field, Aile’s shots kept missing Pandora as she kept disappearing when she shot. Pandora appeared in front of her in her blue armor and sent out an ice bottle at Aile, who barely dodged it. Aile rolled away as the ice bottle slid to her way before letting out a few shots at Pandora, who spun her staff to knock away her shots and bounced them back.

Back in Prometheus’ and Vent’s battle, one of Aile’s bounced shots hit Vent’s shoulder and made him lose his grip on his saber and dropped it. As he saw that Prometheus was standing close to his saber, Vent had no choice but to pull out his buster and shot a few regular shots at Prometheus. Prometheus let himself take the weak shots, before he slammed his scythe and some yellow spikes came out from below him.

Vent sidestepped the incoming spikes and let it pass through before he dived down and grabbed his saber near Prometheus’ feet before letting out a slash on his feet. Prometheus jumped to dodge the attack before hovering above Vent. Prometheus sent out a sonic boom slash with his scythe at Vent, who managed to dodge by flattening himself down to the ground. Prometheus disappeared, and reappeared above him before summoning four fire skulls around him. The fire skulls shot out fireballs at Vent, who dodged them easily before slamming down his saber on Prometheus, not noticing that one of the fireballs had reached Pandora’s and Aile’s side of the field.

Aile had jumped to dodge Pandora’s lines of thunder balls, but it left her open for one of Prometheus’ purple fireballs. Aile was knocked back to the edge of the highway, with fire burning right below her. Aile quickly got up and let out more shots at Pandora, who didn’t bother to dodge the incoming shots.

With the heat of the burning fire around the field they were battling, Vent and Aile were at a disadvantage. Vent’s armor was in a much worse condition due to Prometheus’ strong attacks, while Aile had exhausted herself from trying to shoot out charged shots at Pandora and dodging her attacks.

Vent held his saber tightly before he blindly charged at Prometheus, who disappeared right in front of him. Prometheus appeared behind Vent and charged towards him before slashing his scythe at Vent, who was knocked back a bit, and then followed it up with a jump and spinning slash to knock him away near the burning car.

Prometheus disappeared and reappeared right in front of him before summoning more fire skulls around him. Vent, both damaged and exhausted, had the trouble dodging the fireballs as they hit him. Vent was down on the ground, but more fireballs were coming at him, making him roll away weakly to dodge the attack before slowly getting up. The fireballs hit the ground instead, and created a wall of fire separating the two battlefields.

“Give it up!” Prometheus said as he approached Vent, who was still on the ground, “Don’t even hope of finding Model W now that you’re going to be finished here!”

“No…” Vent whispered weakly, “I’m… not finished…” Vent got up slowly while holding on to his saber, “We’ve been through… this far… we can’t… turn back… from here…”

“How persistent,” Prometheus slashed Vent with his scythe, knocking him back to the ground, “You shouldn’t have even survived until now. You should’ve died back than to the Mavericks, so that you won’t have to experience this kind of pain anymore!”

Prometheus approached Vent, who was struggling to get up, and stepped his left foot on him, “Argh! Stop… it… Prometheus…!”

Prometheus let out an evil laugh, “Why stopping now? I can enjoy seeing that suffering face of yours! The near death suffering!”

“YEAAARGH!!!” Vent let out another yell as Prometheus stepped on him harder.

Aile heard Vent’s yell and turned to the other side of the field worriedly, “Vent!”

“A fatal mistake…” Pandora’s voice was heard before Aile turned around, but it was too late to dodge as an ice bottle was sliding fast towards her when she turned to her.

Aile was knocked away near the burning car, but she stayed on the ground and turned to Vent’s side which was blocked by the wall of fire. Aile’s eyes grew wide as she saw the silhouette of Prometheus stepping on Vent while he struggled to break free from his foot, “Vent! No!” A tear slid down from her face, but then turned back to Pandora when she heard her land in front of her.

“It is… too late…” Pandora looked at Aile with her expressionless face as the Guardian slowly got up, “He… is finished…”

“No, I won’t allow it!” Aile wiped her tear away before pointing her buster at Pandora and released a charged shot at her, who didn’t expect it.

Aile saw Pandora being knocked away by her shot before she charged her buster once more and pointed it at Prometheus’ silhouette, releasing it at the not expecting Reploid and knocked him away from Vent. The fire died down as Prometheus had been weakened by the charged shot, leaving Vent to force himself to get up and slammed his saber on Prometheus with all the strength he had left to knock him away towards Pandora.

Aile quickly ran to Vent’s side as he collapsed to his knees before turning to the two Reploids, who were slowly getting up to their feet, “What are you trying to accomplish!? Why do we have to be involved in this!? And just who are you if you’re not on Serpent’s side!?”

“It is… destiny… Mega Men must fight until one remains…” Pandora spoke up, “And we… are the voice of Model W…”

Prometheus let out a laugh, “If you want to know more, you’ll have to face Model W! You two. Serpent. The citizens of this country. You are all players acting out your parts on a stage just like how Model W had written them!” Prometheus let out another laugh before the two Reploids teleported away.

“The Maverick activity is finally subsiding,” Prairie’s voice was heard from the two’s communicators, “You must have taken down their leader!”

“No… it’s not over yet…” Vent weakly replied before sitting up beside Aile.

“Vent, is that you?” Prairie asked worriedly, “Are you okay!?”

“I’m okay…” Vent replied, still feeling weak, “Have you pinpointed… Model W’s location…?”

“I’m sorry, but we still need more time for it,” Prairie replied, still sounding worried, “For now, you two should go back to the Guardian HQ. Vent, you need to have your wounds treated right away. Aile, come to the command center after you help Vent get to the medic wing.”

“Okay,” Aile ended the connection and helped Vent up before they headed for the transerver to teleport themselves back to the HQ.

The two arrived at the HQ safely and Aile took Vent to the medic wing, where Muguet and Rose were waiting with their medical equipment ready. Once she handed Vent over to Muguet, Aile silently made her way towards the command center as she was asked and saw that Prairie had already been waiting for her.

“Ah, Aile…” Prairie noticed the worried look on Aile’s face, “Don’t worry, Vent will be okay. Muguet is the best medic around, and that’s the reason why Sis decided to take her in.”

Aile forced a smile, “I guess… It’s Vent we’re talking about, and with Muguet’s help, I guess he’s going to pull through…” Aile felt that she was more relieved after hearing about Muguet before turning back to Prairie, “So, is there anything you want to tell me about?”

“Yes,” Prairie nodded, “We haven’t been able to track where that stolen Model W is, but wherever it is, you two are going to fight a tough battle. If I can do something, I only want to wish that you two don’t have to go down there and fight, risking the lives given by your mothers and Giro…” Prairie lowered her head, “Giro… he had always loved you two very much, always considering that you two were a part of his family…”

Aile noticed that Prairie had smiled under her pink hat at the mention of Giro’s name, “Prairie… do you have feelings for him?”

Prairie suddenly looked up to her, a small blush appearing on her face, “E-Eh!?”

Seeing Prairie’s reaction made Aile giggle, “Maybe Giro resembles someone you cared about. Every time you talk about him, you look so happy. Don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you if you did like him. It’s thanks to all of you that we’re finally able to fight for what’s important,” Aile turned away while smiling to herself, _‘After all, Giro had raised Vent to be a caring person…’_

“Aile…” Prairie smiled at her, holding her hand up to her chest.

Aile turned back to Prairie with a smile, “We’re going to finish this battle. For the people of this country, and to honor the memory of the man we all cared about.”

Prairie nodded and smiled, “Alright… You can go back to your room to rest now, Aile.”

Aile nodded and smiled before turning to the door, “Good night, Prairie… I hope you have a pleasant dream about Giro…”

Prairie blushed in embarrassment as the operators listened in to their conversation and saw Aile left the room, _‘And you… about Vent…’_


	18. Storming the Slither Inc.

The next morning came, and was the first one to wake up before she headed towards the command center. The Guardian commander, Prairie, was in the room waiting for her with the three Guardian operators. Prairie turned her chair around when she noticed the female brown-haired Guardian coming into the room and smiled.

“Good morning, Aile,” Prairie greeted with a smile before her expression turned serious, “We’ve found where Model W is.”

“Where is it?” Aile asked with a serious expression.

“It’s located in the tallest building right in the center of the country, or Slither Inc.’s head office to be exact,” Prairie replied, “I’m detecting a huge concentration of energy within that building. Something big is going to happen and it’s going to be dangerous. Aile, because Vent is still recovering, are you okay with going there alone?”

Aile nodded confidently, “I’m ready for whatever it is waiting for me out there even without Vent with me. I’m going to get the other Biometals from Vent and head there immediately!"

“You don’t have to do that now, because you’re not going there alone,” A familiar voice was heard from behind them as they turned to the door and Vent came into the room with bandages still wrapping his arms and head, “I’m okay now, so let me join in the fight!”

“Vent…” Prairie hesitated at first, but nodded once she saw the determination in his eyes, “Alright, you may go. I want you two to be very careful, and… please come back here alive, okay?”

“You don’t have to tell us,” Vent said before he and Aile transformed into their ZX forms, “We’ll save this country and come back here in one piece!” Vent turned to Aile, “Let’s go! Let’s storm Serpent’s Slither Inc. head office!”

“Right!” Aile replied with a nod and headed towards the transerver room, teleporting themselves to the highway area right in front of the Slither Inc. head office’s main entrance.

They entered the tall building and found themselves in a big room with many chandeliers hanging on the ceiling. Instead of finding people or Reploids working in the office, they found Mechaniloids instead, blocking their way towards the elevator on the end of the room. The big elevator was also guarded by a pair of Galleon Hunters, but they weren’t as tough as the other Mechaniloids on the way.

Vent pulled out both his saber and buster, charging both of them. Aile pulled out her buster and started shooting at the approaching Mechaniloids before giving Vent the opening to release his charged shot at a line of Mechaniloids blocking them, giving them the way towards the Galleon Hunters guarding the big elevator and slammed the charged saber at them.

Aile kicked away the remains of the Galleon Hunters before looking back at the room, which was littered by the remains of the Mechaniloids, before looking at the elevator in front of them, “This elevator… It must’ve been used by Serpent to transport the security Mechaniloids all the time…”

“Yeah,” Vent nodded in agreement as he looked at the elevator as well, “Serpent must be at the top floor of this building…” Vent turned to Aile worriedly, “Aile, are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“What are you talking?” Aile asked with an irritated tone, “I’m here to take down Serpent, just like you are. I’m ready to make him pay for what he did to our mothers and Giro!”

Vent let out a smile before pressing up on the elevator, “That settles it. We’re going to stop Serpent, and make him pay for the sufferings he caused for us!”

The elevator doors opened up and Vent and Aile went into the elevator confidently. As the elevator had no roof at all, helicopter-like Mechaniloids flew inside the elevator, catching the two Guardians off guard. The Mechaniloids rained them with buster shots, leaving them to brace themselves on the floor of the elevator.

Vent quietly pulled out his saber, and Aile pulled out her buster before charging it. Vent jumped with his saber in hand, cutting off the propellers on the Mechaniloids before they fell, leaving Aile to finish them off with her charged shots. With the helicopter Mechaniloids taken care off, a pair of Galleons with jet burners on their shoulders landed on the elevator.

Vent quickly beheaded the first Galleon, before slashing away one of the jet burners on the other Galleon. Aile shot out a small charged shot on the Galleon’s other jet burner before shooting out regular shots at it until it was destroyed. The elevator was still moving upwards, getting closer and closer to the top floor. Once it stopped, Vent and Aile got off the elevator with their weapons still in hand into a room completely filled with tubes.

“Cyber-elves!” Aile noticed the lights moving inside the tubes, “But why are there so many of them here?”

“Serpent must be up to something with these elves!” Vent concluded before pointing at a door ahead of them, “Let’s go! Serpent must be behind that door!”

Vent and Aile went through the door into a very big room. The Model W core was sitting in the middle of the room, surrounded by a wall of tubes filled with hundreds of Cyber-elves. Standing right next to the Model W core was Serpent, who had expected the Guardians coming. As if knowing what the two were thinking, Serpent looked up at the Cyber-elves.

“You two must be wondering why we need so many Cyber-elves to awaken Model W…” Serpent turned back to the two Guardians, “Hmph! Children like you could never understand that! Their fright…” Serpent looked down to his hands before he curled them into fists, “It becomes the power that drives Model W!”

“What!?” Vent and Aile said in disbelief.

The whole room shook suddenly and Serpent pulled out a small fragment of Model W before looking up at the core, “Model W, it’s time! The despair and fear of this country are yours!” The tubes started breaking and the Cyber-elves contained within flew towards the core, absorbed by it one-by-one, “By joining us, the weak are freed from their suffering! The chosen one, Mega Man, will save the people! That is the glory of Project Haven!”

“Mega Man will save the people!?” Aile asked in anger, “How did you get those Cyber-elves, by sacrificing people!?”

Serpent shook his head and smiled evilly, “Ten years ago, people fell victim to a Maverick raid. My company’s security force dealth with the Maverick threat and were welcomed back as heroes. Since then, this country has been plagued by raid after raid and my company has always come to the rescue. I was able to earn the trust of the people, while at the same time harvest the spirits I needed to be sacrificed! Those sacrifices in the end result into our power for rebirth and evolution by Model W! I’m simply giving the meaning of life to the people who cannot keep up with the tide of evolution!”

Vent growled angrily, “So you just used the victims of the raids ten years ago, people like my mom to create the Cyber-elves!? All of it! Our moms! Boss! Prairie’s sister!” Vent pointed his saber angrily at Serpent, “You’re behind all of their losses!”

“Survival of the fittest! The strong survive while the weak fade away! It’s the classic struggle for life!” Serpent spread out his arms towards the Cyber-elves, “The spirits of the people have given me what I need to obtain the power of Model W! Look at you two! You’re only able to stand before me today thanks to the power of Model Z absorbed from that red Mega Man! Evolution requires sacrifice! The ones who will determine what needs to be sacrificed are the Mega Men!”

Serpent transformed as he merged with the Model W fragment in his hand. His body was now covered by white armor with some yellow outlines on it. Yellow spikes appeared on his head, shoulders, and the back of his hands and feet. Serpent looked down at his palm as he admired the new power within him.

“Your fear and despair combined with my joy in victory… They shall be the ultimate gift to Model W!” Serpent charged at the two Guardians, who had their weapons ready.

Vent charged in as well, holding his saber right in front of him before he landed a slash on Serpent’s chest. Aile released a charged shot followed by a series of regular shots at Serpent, who didn’t even bother to dodge. Serpent sent out a big ball of energy towards the two Guardians, who sidestepped to dodge, only to find out that the energy ball followed Aile.

“Stay away!!!” Aile released another charged shot, knocking it off course and headed towards Vent.

“Like I’ll let you hit me!” Vent angrily landed an uppercut slash on the energy ball, knocking it up to the ceiling.

Serpent suddenly charged towards Vent and grabbed him by the neck, chocking him before he threw him against the wall behind him. Vent kicked himself down towards Serpent, before landing a rolling slash on his back. Serpent turned as Vent landed behind him and punched him hard on the face, sending him flying towards Aile who was standing right behind Vent.

Aile pushed Vent off her before she fired a series of shots at Serpent out of rage, but Serpent had jumped up and shot out three small energy balls down at her and Vent. The two took the hits directly as they didn’t have the time to dodge, creating some smokescreen upon impact. Once the smokescreen cleared away, Vent charged in once more and slammed his saber on Serpent’s head angrily.

Serpent blocked the saber with a single before he grabbed Vent’s neck once more, throwing him to the spot behind Serpent. Aile charged in as well with her saber and tried slashing him with all her might, but Serpent blocked all of her attacks before he swung his arm and knocked her away, sending her flying towards the wall beside Serpent.

Unknown to Serpent, Vent had shot him with his charged shot while he was still lying on the ground. Serpent was pushed back a little bit, but managed to turn to him and hit him with his sliding kick. Vent was knocked against the door where he and Aile came from, but he quickly got up afterwards. Aile fired another charged shot at Serpent, who dodged by jumping up high before landing hard in front of her and sent sparks across the field.

The two Guardians took the attack, but they weren’t too badly damaged by it. Vent forced himself to charge at the big Reploid once more and slammed his saber hard on his head. After Vent kicked Serpent to distance himself from him, Aile followed up with a charged shot, which knocked Serpent to the ground. The two watched Serpent got back to his feet without trouble, and was laughing.

“What’s so funny, Serpent!?” Vent asked angrily.

“It’s just like Prometheus and Pandora said…” Serpent was still chuckling, “You are the final key… Right now, you two are being controlled by a powerful emotion…” Serpent raised his arms, his voice echoing in the room, “Emotion so powerful that it even exceeds mine!”

Vent’s and Aile’s armor suddenly started glowing before they were both transformed back into their human forms. A purple orb came out from their bodies before the orbs flew towards Model W core and were absorbed by it. Vent and Aile were left confused as they saw that their armor was gone and had transformed back into their human forms.

“Our transformation was cancelled,” Aile looked at her hands, which were her regular human hands, in confusion, “What’s happening to us?”

Serpent laughed evilly, “The emotion driving you now… That emotion is not bravery… It’s not born out of some sense of righteousness… It’s hate. Your hates for me and everything I’ve taken from you two!”

“What!?”


	19. Final Battle! Serpent and Model W!

Serpent looked down at the two Guardians in their human forms and laughed evilly, “The emotion driving you now… That emotion is not bravery… It’s not born out of some sense of righteousness… It’s hate. Your hates for me and everything I’ve taken from you two!”

“What!?” Vent and Aile said in unison, shocked at Serpent’s words.

The ground started shaking as the Model W core glowed in bright red color. The red color slowly turned into white as the white sphere of light engulfed the whole core. Serpent looked up in satisfaction before his armor faded away, leaving him only in his black jumpsuit. The sphere of light slowly took Serpent in, absorbing him in the sphere of light as he let out and echoing laugh.

“The new age is beginning right now before your very eyes. The age of the Mega Man… The destined ruler!” A human-like shape came out on the top of the sphere of light before its size grew a bit, horns growing on the head, shoulders, and back. The sphere of light shrunk down into the shape of a giant human body before the light left the whole body, revealing the figure’s true colors.

Serpent’s whole body was covered with another white armor, but two bigger orange horns grew from his back. Another pair of orange horns was on both of his shoulders, which were protected by a spherical yellow armor. The last pair of horns was on his head, along with a green horn sitting on his forehead and Serpent’s whole face was protected by a white mask. His clawed hands had trapped Vent and Aile as his hands had blocked their possible exits.

Aile looked up in despair, “That’s impossible. We’re the key to awakening the power of Model W?”

Vent fell to his knees and slammed his fists in frustration, “All of the fighting and the pain… Was all that a mistake!?”

 _“Don’t give up yet,”_ Model X’s voice was heard.

 _“Your battle is not over,”_ Model Z’s voice was heard afterwards.

“Eh!?” Vent noticed that the Biometals came out of his and Aile’s pockets and started hovering around them, moving in circles around them.

 _“We did not lend you our power just to let you carry out some kind of_ _petty revenge…_ _”_ Model H stated, stopping to speak up before continuing to hover around them.

Model F stopped circling them and stopped in front of them, _“_ _Beating up someone just because you don_ _’t like them is nothing more_ _than the action of a playground bully_ _,”_ Model F continued hovering around them.

Model L stopped circling them and stopped in front of them, _“_ _Don_ _’t give in to the hate. If you fight the flow, you just end up_ _swimming in place_ _,”_ Model L continued hovering around them.

Model P stopped circling them and stopped in front of them, _“_ _Even in the darkest tunnel, there is always a light at the end of it_ _for you to follow_ _,”_ Model P continued hovering around them.

Model X stopped circling around them and stopped in front of them, _“_ _Your power is not based on hate. Your real power. Your wellspring of_ _bravery lies within you!_ _”_ Model X continued hovering around them.

Model Z stopped circling around them and stopped in front of them, _“_ _Look within yoursel_ _ves!_ _”_ Model X and Model Z hovered in front of them while the other Biometals went back to Vent’s and Aile’s pockets. The two Biometals merged with Vent and Aile, transforming them back to their ZX forms.

Vent looked down to his hand before curling it into a fist in determination, “You’re right. That day, we made a promise that we would protect people! All of them!”

Vent and Aile turned to each other and nodded before looking up at Serpent, _“_ _Well then. If you_ _’re so sure of yourself, let_ _’s find out which Mega Man_ _is destined to rule the world!_ _”_

“I’m not interested in ruling the world!” Aile told the male Reploid.

“Serpent, if you want to be the Mega Man destined to rule the world,” Vent said before he pulled out his saber and Aile pulled out her buster.

“Then we are the Mega Men that are destined to save it!” Vent and Aile said in unison, determination within their voices.

 _“You cannot deny the change! The change comes with the survival of people!”_ Serpent responded angrily.

Vent and Aile turned to each other once more, “Vent, I need for us to work together more than we had ever been. Can I ask for your help?”

“No problem!” Vent replied confidently, “Just tell me the plan you have in your head!”

Aile smiled and nodded, “For some reason, I can tell that his weakness is his head. I’ll do the attacking with my buster, while you cover for me. Is that okay with you?”

“Alright!” Vent swung his saber around him, “I can take care of it, don’t worry! I’ll protect you, no matter what! That’s what I had promised you!”

Aile turned away for a moment to hide away her blush, before shaking it off and aimed her buster at Serpent’s head. While Aile was charging her buster, Serpent shot out orange beams from the horns on his shoulder straight towards the upper corners of the room. Four burning meteors soon came shooting down at them, who jumped away to dodge. The meteors left some trails of fire, but Vent had done his rolling slash, keeping the fire away from Aile before she released her charged shot at Serpent’s head.

While Aile was charging her buster once more, a thunder ball appeared in Serpent’s mouth and shot it down at her. Aile sidestepped to dodge, but didn’t notice that the thunder ball broke into four small thunder beams with one of them shooting her way. Vent quickly ran over to her and pushed her away, taking the small damage to himself.

Aile released another charged shot at Serpent’s head, followed by Vent’s rolling slash. Serpent’s hands fired purple lasers right below them and created purple clusters of crystal before smashing them into pieces with his hands, sending the broken shards at them. Vent took some damage from the shards, but managed to slash some to prevent them from hitting Aile.

Vent continued with a series of rolling slashes at Serpent’s head, making his body to move higher and revealed a part of his lower body. Green eye-like projectors appeared on Serpent’s shoulders, making Aile to direct her aim to the shoulders instead and fired another charged shot. Just as the shot hit Serpent, a purple vortex opened up on Serpent’s body right on their level, pulling the two Guardians towards it.

Vent and Aile crashed towards each other before being pushed towards Aile’s side. Vent quickly removed himself from Aile as he landed right on top of her, before turning back to Serpent and noticed that some purple particles were heading towards them. As Aile was getting up, she saw that Vent was blocking her away from the purple particles, which were stuck on his body.

“It feels… heavy…” Vent tried moving his body, but he failed as his body slumped to the ground.

“Hang on, Vent!” Aile turned to Serpent, who had stopped throwing out purple particles at them, _‘That vortex must have sent out those particles…’_

“I’m okay now…” Vent slowly got up to his feet as the purple particles started disappearing from his body.

Serpent shot out a few thunder balls from his mouth, which hit the ground around them and broke into two thunder beams each. Vent and Aile jumped away to dodge before Aile started charging her buster again, leaving Vent in charge of the defenses once more. Green cursors appeared on Vent’s body, slowly draining away his strength, but Aile’s charged shot had stopped them from weakening Vent more.

Serpent’s shoulder horns fired off more orange beams, sending out four more burning meteors on the two Guardians. Vent barely dodged the attack, but still managed to slash away the fire trails raining down on them. Even with his strength drained a little, Vent forced himself to jump towards one of Serpent’s clawed hands to kick himself up to his shoulder and hit it with his rolling slash before jumping to the other hand.

As Vent was about to reach for his shoulder, Serpent had opened up another purple vortex to pull them in. Vent held on to Serpent’s armor while waiting for it to disappear, but the vortex started sending out the purple particles towards them. Vent climbed to Serpent’s shoulder before landing a slash and jumped down, cutting through the purple particles.

Aile shot up at Serpent’s shoulder while destroying the purple particles above her head, making Serpent’s body to move up more to reveal the lower part of his body. Serpent’s lower body had a pattern which resembled a face along with a glowing green crystal on the face’s forehead. A second set of hands appeared on the sides, blocking the pathway towards the door. Serpent’s head smashed the ceiling, sending rocks and debris falling on the two Guardians.

Vent and Aile moved away from the falling rocks before regrouping in front of Serpent’s body, “Aile, I think I can tell that we should destroy the crystal now.”

Aile nodded in agreement, “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” Aile put away her buster and pulled out her saber instead, “Close range attack is our best bet for this situation!”

Vent charged his saber while Aile kept slashing the green crystal before Serpent’s second set of hands sent out purple beams to the middle of the room. Vent and Aile moved away to different sides before seeing that the purple beams from both hands had created a cluster of purple crystal in front of them. The hands smashed the cluster of crystal, sending the shards of crystals anywhere in the room.

Vent dodged the incoming shards and dashed towards Aile’s side, where Serpent’s body was, and slammed his saber on the glowing green crystal. The crystal had a small crack from the impact, but it was still glowing as brightly as it was before. The claws of the second set of hands opened up into small cannons, which fired green spheres of energy towards them continuously.

Vent and Aile took a beating from the shots, and by the time the cannons stopped firing, Vent and Aile were down on the ground, both damaged and exhausted. The two slowly got back to their feet and looked up at Serpent’s body, which also had some cracks around the arms and the chest area. More green cursors appeared on Vent’s and Aile’s body, draining their strength away.

“Ugh…” Vent used his saber for support as he tried to keep himself on his feet, before forcing himself to slam his saber down on the crystal once more.

“Vent…” The green cursors left their bodies, and Aile managed to get back to her feet before she slowly approached Vent, who was already at his limit.

 _“Have you had enough yet?”_ Serpent asked, looking down at the two weakened Guardians, _“If you want to be the Mega Men destined to save the world, why are you so weak?”_

“We’re not… weak…” Vent looked up at Serpent, holding his saber tighter, “We have our friends, and we have the citizens of this country behind our back to support us!”

“Serpent, your strength… The strength you’ve been wanting… only comes from fear, and nothingness…” Aile added, “Our strength… comes from our heart, and the hearts of other people!”

“Serpent!” Vent and Aile charged both of their sabers before Vent continued, “We’re fighting for others!” Vent slammed his saber on the crystal before charging it again, “This is for our moms!”

Aile slammed her saber before charging it, “This is for Giro!”

Vent slammed his saber once more before charging it, “This is for Prairie’s sister!”

Aile slammed her saber once more before charging it, “This is for the Guardians!”

Vent and Aile slammed their sabers together, “This is for us!”

The crystal broke, and Serpent let out a pained yell as the ground started shaking. Vent and Aile looked up as the walls started cracking, “Vent… we… we did it…” Aile suddenly tackled Vent into a hug, “We beat Serpent!”

“Y-Yeah…” Vent nervously replied, returning the hug with a blush on his face.


	20. Our Destiny and Future

Vent and Aile slammed their sabers together, “This is for us!”

The crystal broke, and Serpent let out a pained yell as the ground started shaking. Vent and Aile looked up as the walls started cracking, “Vent… we… we did it…” Aile suddenly tackled Vent into a hug, “We beat Serpent!”

“Y-Yeah…” Vent nervously replied, returning the hug with a blush on his face.

The two broke the hug and looked up at Serpent, whose armor was in cracks as rocks from the ceiling rained down on him. Vent stepped closer to Serpent, “You’re no Mega man, and you’re no ruler. You’re just a tool manipulated Model W. You’ve played with lives of people, making yourself a Maverick. We’ll never become like you!”

 _“A Maverick!? Me!?”_ Serpent asked angrily, _“You’re the ones denying change, maybe you’re the Mavericks! We must move forward! We must change!”_ Serpent suddenly laughed evilly, _“We Mega Men are created to destroy each other survive to control Model W! It’s all just a game, his game. We’re all pieces on the board, and the winner becomes the ruler of the world!”_

“‘His game’!?” Aile asked in confusion.

 _“Ah yes! His blood flows in your veins too! The man who made Model W!”_ Serpent responded.

“No way! It can’t be true!” Vent rejected in disbelief.

 _“That man… gave me the power to be able to change this world… With every age of war in this world, fools like you try to fight it,”_ Serpent looked down at the two Guardians, _“You don’t want to see anyone get hurt, and you don’t want to lose anything. By acting on that desire, you continue to make choices that avoid the pain. The Mega Man destined to save the world? Unchanging life… A world devoid of the light of hope. What’s the point!?”_

“But…!” Vent rejected, but the shaking ground had prevented him from finishing his sentence.

Vent and Aile transformed back into their human forms before their Biometals floated out of their pockets and hovered around them, _“Vent! Aile! This place is falling apart! You two have to get out of here!”_

The Biometals teleported Vent and Aile out of the building as it crumbled down, leaving Serpent back in the room of the crumbling building, _“The destiny of destruction… Still awaits… So long as you have hearts, hate will lurk in the shadows… You who possess the wellspring of emotion known as the heart… You are the true Mavericks!”_ Serpent’s body exploded, followed by more explosions throughout the building.

Vent and Aile found themselves floating in the middle of nowhere, with only white color around them and the Biometals hovering around them. The two went silent as they were reminded by Serpent’s words.

“‘We must move forward. We must change,’” Vent repeated Serpent’s words in a whisper.

“His blood… The blood within our veins… and that power… Is that the power to control the world…?” Aile wondered sadly.

“I don’t like how you two would just forget our promise like that,” A familiar voice was heard as a Cyber-elf flew in front of them, before materializing into their blond-haired friend, “Is there another reason for you to decide to fight? And Aile, why do you let me hear that kind of talk?”

“But Giro, the blood flowing in our veins…” Aile protested, making Giro shake his head.

“Is just blood. You can’t let someone you don’t even know decide your destiny for you,” Giro told Aile before turning to Vent, “Vent, you… you were a real pain,” Vent looked at his boss and friend in surprise, “You never treated the clients with respect. You ignored me. You were always reckless and ran off on your own. Yeah, you were definitely a real pain. You drove me crazy, but I always cared about you. Even the times you drove me crazy… Every moment is a precious memory to me.”

“Boss…” Vent whispered sadly.

“Strip away the hate and the sorrow from our hearts and what’s left?” Giro asked calmly, “Serpent threw away everything until nothing was left and tried to change the world. Vent. Aile. What will you two do?”

Vent and Aile went silent for a moment before Aile decided to speak up, “Our grief over your loss or the loss of our mothers will always be in our hearts and memories. Those memories are proof we alive until this day.”

“Difficult memories… Sad memories… They don’t matter. We don’t want to lose them! We will protect all of them!” Vent continued, regaining his confidence back.

Giro gave them a smile, “Then I will leave things up to you two. Guide the world, and bring it the future you think it deserves. That’s my last job request for you, transporters.”

Giro disappeared from their sight, and everything around them started to fade away. Vent moved his body and opened his eyes before getting up and looking at his surroundings, “This is… the highway area…” Vent turned to his feet, where Aile was getting up, “Aile… are you okay?”

“Uh…” Aile sat up for a moment before she stood up beside Vent and smiled at him, “I’m okay now. With Serpent no more, things should have been more peaceful from now on…”

“Yeah, I surely hope so…” Vent nodded and returned the smile.

“Vent! Aile!” A familiar feminine voice called out to them.

Vent and Aile turned to the source of the voice, recognizing the voice to be Prairie’s as they called out to her, “Prairie!”

Vent and Aile ran towards Prairie, who was with some other Guardians behind her. Aile ran to hug Prairie, who was glad to see the brown-haired Guardians alive. Vent got his hair ruffled by the big Guardian member, Thon, before he put him into a headlock in excitement. Fleuve and Maquereau only watched the whole commotion from behind them, smiling for the two’s success.

_‘Facing our destinies and carving out the future… That’s our struggle.’_

Vent broke free from Thon’s headlock and looked up at the starry sky.

_‘I have something I must protect. And now I have the power to protect it.’_

Aile broke the hug from Prairie and looked ahead at the streets with a smile.

_‘Everyone has fought to give me something precious. I have a power, and with that power comes responsibility.’_

Vent and Aile turned to each other and smiled before giving each other a high-five.

_‘We will fight! We will fight for what we believe in, and for what matters!’_


	21. Trim the Weed!

A month had passed since the defeat of Serpent and the destruction of Slither Inc. head office building. The number of Maverick attacks had dropped since Serpent was defeated, giving the whole country a moment of peace. The Guardians had revealed Serpent’s true intentions from the start, which had shocked the citizens greatly.

Vent and Aile, having not many Mavericks to fight anymore, decided to spend their time more on the ground rather than flying in the Guardian Base. Aile went back to Giro Express’ office to resume her work as a transporter, while Vent decided to help out with rebuilding the highway as some part was destroyed from their fight with Serpent.

It was a clear day out, but Vent decided to take a break from his work and spend some time hanging out in the base. Aile was also taking a day off from her transporter duties as there weren’t many deliveries to do. Vent had just come out from the command center, having already visited Prairie, went he saw Aile coming out of the transerver room.

“Hey Aile!” Vent greeted as he stopped in front of her, “Long time no see! What’s up?”

Aile let out a laugh, “Are two days really that long for you? You helped me with the delivery rush that day, remember?”

“W-Well yeah, but…” Vent let out a sigh, “We saw each other every day when we were still fighting off against Serpent, so…”

“So you miss me?” Aile teased, making Vent blush.

“NO! I-It’s not like that…” Vent denied in panic, before someone patted his shoulder from his back, surprising him, “Yikes!”

“Waaah!” Vent suddenly turned defensively, surprising the Guardian standing behind him.

“Oh, Congre! Nice to see you again!” Aile recognized the surprised Guardian, “Is everything okay?”

“Y-Yes…” The Guardian, Congre, still a bit shocked, replied with a nod, “Except for one thing…”

“What is it then? A ‘surprising as many people as you can’ competition?” Vent asked sarcastically, getting a hard elbow from Aile on his gut, “Ouch!”

“Well, the other day, someone asked me to cut some weed growing on their roof,” Congre explained, “I accept the request, but… I just remember that I’m afraid of heights!”

“Now that’s a real problem,” Aile nodded before turning to Vent, “Vent, can you do it?”

“What?” Vent asked in annoyance, “Why can’t you do it? I’m taking a day off here after those hard days of repairing bridges and streets!”

Aile glared at Vent before turning to Congre with a smile, “Excuse me,” Aile dragged him away from Congre, “Don’t you remember? I’m afraid of heights too! Do you want me to freak out just because I’m standing on top of a high roof?”

“Well, no…” Vent replied shortly before continuing, “But I don’t I’ve heard you freak out like a little girl or something… oh, wait! I guess I did once when we’re on the mission to protect that lab.”

“Yeah, so can you please forget about how I yelled like that?” Aile glared at Vent, who nodded out of fear, before she dragged him back to Congre, “Alright, Vent will help you with your problem!”

“Hey!” Vent turned to Aile angrily, “I’ve never-”

Aile put her hand over his mouth and glared at him while having a smile on her face, “You will do it, won’t you?”

Vent gulped and blushed as he noticed how close their faces were before letting out a nod and turned to Congre, “Okay… so where should I start?”

A few moments later, Vent found himself walking in the city, looking around at the peaceful sights. Ever since Serpent was taken down and his real plan was revealed in public, he expected the citizens to be living in fear knowing their ‘hero’ was actually the one planning the Maverick raids. The citizens unexpectedly live their lives as if nothing happened, but he was sure that the news had torn their hearts away.

Vent stopped walking and looked up at the tall buildings in the city, “Here I am. The building with some weed on the roof should be in this area!” Vent hid himself in a nearby small alley before pulling out Model X and Model H, “Rock ON! Model HX!”

Vent used his jet wings to climb the building, reaching up to the rooftop of the building. Some wild weed grew on the flat roof, but Vent easily cut them off with his dual sabers before burning them with Model FX’s fire busters. Vent transformed back into his human form, feeling confident that he was done with his work, until he looked at the next building which had taller grass growing on the roof.

“What!?” Vent asked himself in surprise, “You’ve got to be kidding me! That’s not weed, that’s a forest!”

Vent lazily transformed back into Model HX and crossed to the next building to cut the tall grass. With the roof much bigger than the last one, Vent took more time to cut the whole grass and burned them with the help of Model FX. Vent sat on the roof right in front of the burning grass, waiting for the whole grass to burn, and looked up, seeing that the sun was setting.

“What a work… Though it’s not as tiring as that delivery rush…” Vent let out a sigh before turning back to the burning grass, which only had the ash remains left, “Alright, time to back to the base!”

Vent went back to the alley before jumping down and transformed back into his human form, walking back towards the nearest transerver to go back to the base. As he arrived in the base’s transerver room, Vent stretched out his arms before opening the door and headed out of the transerver room to find Congre, only to pass through the cafeteria and saw Aile along with some other female Guardians chatting and relaxing.

“Aile!” Vent barged into the cafeteria, getting the attention of the Guardians in the room, and pointed straight at Aile, “I’m…” Vent’s stomach growled before he could finish his sentence, dropping his hand down, “… hungry…”


	22. Deliver the Letters!

It was another clear day, but the male brown-haired Guardian had snuck away from his work in the highway area. He teleported himself to the Guardian Base through the transerver, before taking the elevator in the base to go up to the deck area. Just as he was looking around while the elevator moved up to the deck, Vent noticed the troubled tall Guardian hanging by the elevator area on the floor above the transerver’s floor and decided to stop by.

“Hey, Truite!” Vent greeted as soon as the elevator doors opened, “Something’s up?”

“Well, uh…” The Guardian, Truite, rubbed the back of his head nervously, “I was waiting for Aile to finish her lunch… She said that she was going to help me with a delivery, but I haven’t seen her yet.”

“Since I’m here, I guess I’ll try to find her and give her the message. So, what do you want her to deliver?” Vent asked before Truite handed him a letter inside an envelope, “A letter?”

Truite nodded and smiled, “Yes, there’s this girl I like and I want to ask her out. I decided to send her a letter, so I asked Aile to help me deliver it. The girl likes to hang out around the fountain in the city I think…”

“I see… And I think the girl you like is called Melody. She’s a regular costumer, so I’ve seen her a few times before,” Vent took the letter and looked at it for a moment, “And one more thing… Don’t you think it’s too out of season to send letters in this age?”

“Oh, her name is Melody… Such a wonderful name…” Truite smiled to himself before turning back to Vent and nodded, “Yes, but there’s nothing better than letters to capture a human heart!”

“R-Really?” Vent looked up, ignoring the blush on his face, and Truite nodded with a smile, “A-Alright, I’ll get this to Aile then…”

“Thanks Vent!” Truite said as Vent turned and walked away towards the elevator before he noticed something, “Wait, aren’t you supposed to be helping with the highway construction?”

“O-Oh…” Vent stopped walking and turned back to the tall Guardian nervously, “Well, I… was taking a break! It’s not a good thing to overwork yourself, right?”

“Oh, yeah. I guess you’re right with that,” Truite smiled and didn’t notice the nervous look on Vent’s face, “Happy resting then!”

“Okay…” Vent nodded nervously before going down to the cafeteria.

Just as Vent arrived on the floor where the cafeteria was, she saw that Aile had just come out. The female brown-haired Guardian noticed him and approached him, “Vent! Aren’t you supposed to be working right now?” Aile asked, but Vent didn’t give her an answer, “You’re skipping work again, aren’t you?”

“Well, I…” Vent sighed in defeat, “Okay, you got me… Seriously, you’ve got to see how I was told to work on!”

“Yeah right,” Aile nodded and replied sarcastically, “You were told to get the blueprints and do the measuring. Really hard work.”

“Hey! I had to go on foot from the edge of the city to another just to get those stupid blueprints!” Vent argued, before he sighed in irritation and took out the letter from his pocket, “Here, the love letter.”

“L-L-Love letter!? For me!?” Aile asked in surprise, red color replacing her face’s original color, “V-Vent, but that’s… t-that’s so sudden…”

“D-Don’t get the wrong idea!” Vent quickly replied, also blushing, “I didn’t write this! Truite did! He wanted you to deliver this for him!”

“O-Oh…” Aile looked down in disappointment before taking the letter from Vent’s hand, “So what he wanted… was to deliver this love letter…”

Vent nodded nervously before turning away from her, “Y-Yeah, but he doesn’t even know her name! He only knows that she likes to hang around by the fountain…”

“Oh, you mean he’s sending this for Melody?” Aile asked, getting a nod from Vent.

“Alright, I’ll be going now. I want to take a break on the deck before I go back to the highway to continue my work,” Vent said before he got on the elevator and went up to the deck.

Aile put the letter in her pocket and waited for the elevator to come back down and headed towards the transerver to head for the city. Aile took a long walk through the city, heading towards the fountain near the edge of the city which led to the power plant. Just as Vent had said, the black-haired girl, Melody, was sitting on the bench looking at the fountain.

Aile approached the girl and took out the letter, “Melody, I have a letter for you.”

“A letter?” Melody rose from her seat and took the letter from Aile before opening it, “I wonder who this is from… Huh? It says… ‘Would you like to have dinner sometime?’” Melody curled the letter into a ball angrily, “The nerve! Do I look easy to ask on a date!? I don’t even know him!”

“W-Well, I guess I should be going now…” Aile backed away as she saw Melody threw away the letter, in the form of a paper ball, and went back to the transerver room to go back to the base.

Aile went out of the transerver room and went up through the elevator, seeing the tall Guardian standing by the elevator doors. Truite noticed the female Guardian and turned to her, “Aile! How is it? Did she say anything about the letter?”

“Well…” Aile was about to speak up, only to be cut off by Truite.

“Anyways, I have another favor to ask you,” Truite pulled out another letter from his pocket, “Can you deliver another one for me?”

“Another one? Sure, I guess…” Aile took the letter, “Is it to Melody again?” Truite nodded in reply and Aile went back to the transerver room after taking the letter, heading back towards the fountain where Melody was.

Melody noticed Aile approaching her and got up from the bench with a smile, “Oh, it’s the transporter again,” Aile handed the letter without a word and Melody looked down at it, “Another letter? Now who’s it from this time…” Melody took the letter and opened it, “‘Are you a dog person or a cat person? I like lions myself!’… What is this!? A test!?” Melody curled the letter into another paper ball and threw it away.

 _‘Is he serious?’_ Aile thought as she heard what Truite wrote in the letter.

Melody turned to Aile, feeling annoyed, “Here’s my answer: I like dogs _and_ cats, but I _don’t_ like annoying men.”

“I-I’ll let him know,” Aile smiled nervously before turning away and headed back to the transerver room, _‘That was really harsh… but what was Truite thinking when he wrote that letter?’_

Aile went back to the base and went up to Truite through the elevator, who was smiling and was holding another letter in his hand as Aile arrived, “If it’s okay with you, I need you to deliver another letter.”

“Another?” Aile took the letter hesitantly, “Truite, I think it’ll be better if you let me send all the letters you have for her.”

“Sorry, but that’s the only one I have now…” Truite replied before waving at Aile as she went back to the elevator, “Thanks again, Aile!”

Aile went back to the fountain and found Melody standing by the fountain instead. Melody saw Aile coming at her and let out a sigh in boredom, “Oh, you’re here again, and with another letter I guess?”

“Yes,” Aile nodded before handing over the letter, “Here it is.”

“Now let me guess who the sender is… ‘Ugly but rich or handsome but poor. What’s your type?’” Melody read the letter out loud before letting out an irritated sigh, “Unbelievable! I’m not going to answer it! No matter what answer I choose, I lose!”

“Okay…” Aile nodded before heading back to the transerver room, _‘Seriously, Truite?’_

Aile went back to the base and back to Truite, who was holding another letter in his hand proudly, “Aile, I have a new one to deliver!” Aile lazily approached the tall Guardian, “This time, I can feel it! I can picture her smiling sweetly reading my letter!”

Aile took the letter with a fake smile on her face, _‘Or her angry and irritated face after reading them, no offense!’_

Aile went back to Melody, who had expected her to come again, “Hello, it’s the transporter again…” Melody let out a fake smile, “Another letter from Casanova?”

“Uh, yes…” Aile handed over the letter to Melody.

Melody opened up the letter and her eyes grew wide, “What!? He asked, ‘I just have to ask, how much do I mean to you?’” Melody curled the letter into a ball out of rage before throwing it away, “I’ve only seen him once, so why would he mean anything to me!?”

Aile let out a sigh, “Yeah… and I think he’s just crossed the line…” Aile took another look at the upset Melody before going back to the base through the transerver.

Aile went back to the base, going back to Truite who had another letter in his hand, “Aile! Is it okay if-”

“I’m on it!” Aile took the letter from Truite’s hand and headed back to the transerver room without another word, heading back towards Melody by the fountain.

Melody saw Aile coming and turned away in frustration, “Please, not you again! Just leave me alone already!”

“B-But the letter…” Aile nervously handed over the letter to Melody, who took the letter roughly from her hand.

“Fine! I’ll read it! ‘You are my sunshine… My only sunshine… And I’ll forever be your shining star.’” Melody let out another sigh before throwing away the letter, “This guy can’t get over himself, can he! Can’t his star just shine elsewhere?”

“Honestly, I don’t even know what he’s thinking…” Aile let out a sigh before going back to the transerver room and headed back to the base.

Aile went back to Truite, who was holding another letter, but he had a frown on his face unlike his usual smile. The tall Guardian noticed her coming and turned to her, “Oh, you’re back Aile…” Truite looked at the letter in his hand before turning back to Aile, “Actually… I’ve been transferred out of the base, so I’ll be leaving soon…”

“W-Wait, you’re moving away!?” Aile asked in disbelief, getting a nod from Truite.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you guys before, but…” Truite handed over the letter in his hand, “Here. Can you deliver one last letter for me?”

Aile took the letter and nodded before heading back towards Melody. The black-haired girl was about to shove her away, but then noticed the frown on Aile’s face, “Oh, hi there… Did something happen? You don’t look so cheerful now…” Aile handed Melody the letter without a word, “Another letter… Alright, I’ll take a look at it. ‘I’ve been transferred. I’ll no longer be stationed at the base… This will be the last letter I write… I’ll probably never see you again. Goodbye forever…’”

“As you can see, he’s moving…” Aile spoke up softly.

Melody let out a sigh and folded the letter, “I never really liked him, but now I feel kind of… sad…” Melody turned back to Aile, “Do you have a pen or a pencil? I’m going to write him back.”

“Here,” Aile pulled out a pen from her pocket and handed it over to Melody, who had pulled out a small piece of paper from her purse.

“Thank you,” Melody took the pen and wrote the reply, before handing Aile the letter and the pen, “Here’s the letter and your pen back. Just tell him not to be sad.”

Aile nodded and took the letter and pen, “Okay,” Aile went back to the base and headed to Truite, who had started moving his belongings, “Truite, I got a letter for you. It’s from Melody.”

Truite took the letter from Aile, “I wonder what she could be writing me about… ‘The man I passed in the street that day is not the kind of man that gets discouraged. I don’t like the fact that you’re stubborn and overly optimistic. But I don’t like you being negative even more.’” Truite put the letter away and wondered, “I wonder if that means she likes me back…”

 _‘I doubt it,’_ Aile thought as she let out a fake smile, “But at least she writes back, right?”

Truite’s face lit up a bit and turned to Aile, “Yeah, I guess I’m feeling much better now!” Truite reached for his pocket and pulled out some crystals, “Here’s for all the trouble I put you into!”

“Thanks!” Aile took the crystals and put them in her pocket before looking up at the elevator, “What a long day! I had to go back and forth between the base and the city! I guess I’ll go up to the deck to relax before dinner!”

Aile pushed the elevator up and went towards the deck. The door opened and the orange light coming from the setting sun was bathing the pink airship. She walked out and stretched her arms, before turning to the platform beside the door as she heard soft snoring sounds. Vent was there, fast asleep on the platform, which led Aile to stomp her way towards him and pushed him off the platform, waking him up.

“Oh, so you’re just going to sleep all day while I got to go back and forth between the base and the city for the whole day?” Aile asked angrily, with Vent looking up at her drowsily.

“Huh…?” Vent let out a big yawn, “What are you talking about…?”

Aile let out an annoyed sigh before walking back inside, “Seriously, you’re so hopeless!” Aile went down the elevator towards her room.

Vent looked back to the door leading into the base, confused, “What’s with her anyway?”

The elevator stopped and Aile walked towards her room before stopping at the door and frowned, _‘Will Vent… w-will he ever write me a love letter…?’_


	23. Clean the Polluted Water!

It was another clear day, and the setting sun was seen from the Guardian Base’s deck area. Vent had just come out of the base and stretched his arms, with some dust on his clothes. He looked up and admired the setting sun with a smile, relaxing himself after a hard day of work in the construction site in the highway area.

“Yo! Vent!” Vent turned to the direction where the voice came from and saw the big Guardian member, Thon, approaching him, “You busy right now? ‘Cause I have a favor to ask ya!”

“Nope, I’m already finished with the construction work today. Need anything?” Vent asked.

“I just wanna ask you to help cleanin’ up the polluted water in Area B-2,” Thon started explaining, “We’ve put some containers with the cleanin’ substances, but no one to push the containers in. I’m kinda busy helping Silure in his work now.”

“Okay, I’ll go then! It’s Area B-2, right?” Vent asked again, getting a nod from the big Guardian.

“You got it, boy! You only need to push in four of ‘em and yer done!” Thon added before he went back into the Guardian Base.

“Alright, I guess I can do this on my own!” Vent said to himself confidently before going back into the base and headed down towards the transerver room, transporting himself to the requested area.

With Serpent and Slither Inc. gone, there wasn’t any Mechaniloids in the area which made Vent’s job easier. He jumped over a small lake, which was polluted, and landed in front of a container with the same height as Vent’s. Vent went to the other side of the container and began pushing it towards the small lake, which only took him seconds before the cleaner substance’s container sank into the lake and released the substance in it.

“Alright! One container in! Only three more to go!” Vent exclaimed in excitement before heading deeper into the area, “This job should be a piece of cake! I’m going to finish this in no time at…” Vent stopped when he came to another container, but its height was at least twice higher than he was, “Okay… why is this container so big!?”

Vent sighed in defeat and put a lot of effort into pushing the container into the small lake in front of it. The container finally fell into the lake and sank, releasing the substance inside it. Vent moved on ahead and climbed up the platform right above another polluted small lake, which was a little bigger than the previous ones. He looked around for the container, which he found next to the wall on the other end of the platform.

“Y-You’re kidding!” Vent looked at the container in shock, as it was even bigger than the previous containers, “These containers are getting bigger and bigger!”

 _“Vent, are you there?”_ Aile’s voice was heard from Vent’s communicator.

“What!? I’m kinda busy here!” Vent replied angrily before he went over to the container.

 _“Hey! I’m not going to bug you, so why do you have to be so angry?”_ Aile replied in an annoyed tone, _“I just want to ask you if you want to eat dinner with me, Prairie, and Fleuve. We’re going to talk about sending another Guardian to help you with the construction work.”_

“Sure…” Vent pushed the container with all his might, but only managed to move it a little, “Sounds… great!”

 _“Vent, what are you doing out there?”_ Aile asked out curiosity.

“I’m… helping… Thon… to… clean… up… polluted… water…” Vent replied as he continued pushing the container until it fell off the platform and into the lake, “So, what time?”

 _“Just meet us at the cafeteria after you’re done,”_ Aile replied shortly, _“Good luck with whatever it is you’re doing!”_

“Thanks!” Vent replied before ending the connection, “Wow, that’s a really heavy container!” Vent let out a sigh, “And there’s still one more, which is probably gigantic in size!”

Vent climbed to a higher platform and spotted an even bigger lake on the other end, along with an even bigger container on a small platform above it. Vent reached for the platform and tried pushing the container, but it wouldn’t budge at all. Vent tried pushing it again with his back on the container, but the container didn’t move from its place at all.

“I wonder what’s wrong…” Vent went to the other side of the container, and saw that actually stuck on a missing panel on the platform, “Great. Now how am I supposed to push this thing down!?” Vent sat on the platform in frustration and looked down at the polluted lake. He reached out for his pocket where the Biometals were, making an idea struck him, “I got it!”

Vent pulled out Model X and Model Z before transforming into his ZX form. Vent reached for the bottom of the container, tilting it a little before he grabbed it with his hands. He slowly got up as the weight of the container was pushing him down. Forcing his body to support the weight, Vent managed to lift the container above his feet.

“Now…” Vent breathed out hard, “T-To throw it… in…” Vent moved his right foot to turn, before slowly followed by his left foot and let go of the container, making it fall into the lake, “Yes! I-ouch!” Vent went back to his normal standing position suddenly, making his back hurt as he held it, “G-Great…” Vent slowly lied down on the small platform, “I guess I’ve carried so many heavy things today…”

A few hours later, the Guardian Base’s cafeteria was filled with many hungry Guardians as it was already dinner time. Aile and Prairie was sitting next to each other along with Fleuve sitting in front of them as the three were sitting on the table near the door. Vent walked in, still holding his back in pain, and walked towards the three’s table.

Prairie noticed Vent coming towards them and smiled, “Oh, there you are, Vent!”

Vent sat next to Fleuve, right in front of Aile, and collapsed on the table, “Vent!? What happened to you?”

Vent turned his head to Aile, who was looking at him worriedly, “Don’t ask.”


	24. Get the Flower!

A week had passed since Vent had taken the request from Thon, and after he along with Aile, Prairie, and Fleuve discussed about the Guardians helping with the construction work in Area D or the highway. The highway was almost back to its original shape with the old Slither Inc. head office building, mostly destroyed, standing beside it.

Vent had just finished his work shift and was taking a walk in the city area when he passed by the Giro Express’ office. Aile was working in the office to take over Giro’s job, but with the help from the other transporters. Vent decided to pay her another visit as there weren’t many costumers around in the office.

“Hi Vent!” Aile greeted as Vent came in, “You’re done with the work already?”

“Yeah, and don’t even think that I’m going to skip work again today!” Vent replied before looking around at the office, “Not many costumers nowadays, huh?” Vent asked, getting a sad nod from Aile, “Since there aren’t many things for us to do, why don’t we just take a walk around here? Maybe we can see how the people are doing after we beat Serpent.”

“Hm… good idea, I guess…” Aile nodded in agreement, “Alright, I’ll just leave the others to handle things here.”

Vent and Aile took off from the office and headed into the deeper parts in the city. Despite not having a ‘heroic figure’ anymore, Vent and Aile could tell that the people didn’t seem afraid and they kept on living their normal lives. The sudden news about Serpent’s plan had shaken the people a bit, but soon they moved on to their normal lives.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had this kind of peace, hasn’t it?” Aile asked as she and Vent walked by the streets.

“Yeah…” Vent nodded and replied before looking up at the sky, “And the weather today is as great as the peace we’re having…”

“Excuse me…” The voice of a girl was heard from in front of them, “Are you Vent and Aile, the transporters from Giro Express?”

“Yes, that’s who we are,” Aile replied with a smile, “Is there anything we can help you with?”

“Actually, there is,” The girl, who had long light brown hair and was wearing a blue dress, asked, “My name is Michelle, and I want to ask you if you can get a certain miracle flower for me.”

“A miracle flower?” Aile asked, getting a nod from Michelle, “Okay, we can get it for you. Where does this miracle flower usually grow?”

“I’ve read on a book that the flower usually grow in high places, and points out that there are a lot of them found on the cliff in the nearby forest,” Michelle explained, while Aile suddenly went silent.

“The cliff…” Aile lowered her head, her hands shaking, _‘That’s a really high place!’_

“Alright, we’ll do it,” Vent suddenly spoke up, making Aile turn to him, “What? We’re transporters, and taking requests is a part of our job too, right?” Vent turned back to Michelle, “Don’t worry, we’ll be back with the flower!”

“Vent! What are you thinking!?” Aile glared at Vent angrily, “You know that I’m not good with heights! Why don’t you just go on your own!?”

“You said that _we_ would get it,” Vent talked back before grabbing Aile’s arm, “Come on, let’s find ourselves a transerver to teleport us to the forest area!”

“But I don’t want to go!” Aile kept pulling herself from Vent as he dragged her, but his grip was too strong for her to resist.

Vent and Aile went out to the forest area, where the cliff was and looked up to see whether there were any flowers growing. As Vent walked on ahead to inspect the cliff for the miracle flower, Aile just stayed in her place while glaring angrily at Vent. Vent noticed Aile’s glare towards him and turned to see Aile, obviously annoyed, with her arms folded.

“If you don’t want to go up, then just stay here,” Vent told Aile, who stayed silent, before he pulled out Model X and Model H, “Rock ON! Model HX!”

Vent used his jet wings to push him up to the rocky cliff before he clung to one of the rocks. Aile was on the ground, sitting on the grass while sometimes looking up at Vent who was getting higher and higher on the cliff. Some small rock fell on her occasionally when he landed on a rock or just clinging on it. Aile looked up once more, noticing that Vent’s figure was barely seen anymore, “Vent, have you found it yet?”

“No, not yet…” Vent squinted his eyes and looked up, noticing the silhouette of two flowers, “On second thought, I think I see two of them! It’s just… a few meters above!”

“Then hurry up and get it! I’m bored here!” Aile yelled impatiently from the bottom of the cliff.

“Alright, alright!” Vent looked down at Aile to reply before looking back up at the flowers, “I can’t reach them with my hands… but there aren’t good rocks to hang on to up there…” Vent took a deep breath and eyed a small rock a little below the flowers, _‘My only bet is to jump and use my jet wings to grab that small rock… and here goes nothing!’_

Vent kicked himself up against the rock he was standing on before activating his jet wings to push him higher and reach the small rock. Vent grabbed the small rock with his right hand and forcefully pushed himself up to reach and grab the flowers. Vent picked the flowers with his left hand with his right one still supporting his whole body by hanging on the rock.

“Got it!” Vent took the flowers to his eye level and smiled proudly, not noticing that the small rock couldn’t hold his weight for any longer and broke, “WHOAAA!!!”

“Vent!” Aile saw Vent falling from the cliff, but Vent had reactivated his jet wings to hover down safely. Aile let out a sigh of relief before looking at Vent angrily, “Vent, you almost gave me a heart attack!”

“I’m sorry, okay?” Vent transformed into his human form, “Now let’s just go back to that Michelle girl again and give her these flowers!”

Aile followed Vent silently as they walked towards a nearby transerver room to teleport themselves back to the city. Aile stayed silent behind Vent as he gave the flowers to Michelle, who accepted them happily, “This is it! This is the miracle flower I’m looking for!” Michelle smiled at Vent before looking down at the flowers in her hand, “But I only need one of them, so…” Michelle gave one of the flowers to Vent before handing him some crystals, “Here, you should have it. And that’s your reward.”

“Okay…” Vent took the flower and pocketed the crystals before he took a closer look at the flower, then turned to Aile, and then turned back to the flower with a blush before he turned away and gave the flower to Aile, “H-Here, this is for you.”

“Huh?” Aile turned to Vent in confusion.

“Just… take it!” Vent kept his head turned away as Aile took the flower.

“But I didn’t do anything to help…” Aile was about to give the flower back to Vent, but pushed her hand back to her.

“Take it as an apology for dragging you into doing something you don’t even want,” Vent smiled at her as he looked straight at her.

Aile turned to the flower, which was in both of their hands and blushed as she smiled, “T-Thanks Vent… That’s really sweet of you…”

“Y-Yeah, whatever…” Vent turned away to hide his own blush.


	25. Inseparable Duo

Another week had passed since Vent and Aile took the quest to find the miracle flower. Vent’s work in the construction site was finally finished as the highway area had already gone back to its normal state. Aile decided to leave the Giro Express’ business to the other transporters instead as she had been called to the command center by Prairie for an important matter.

Vent, on the other hand, was in Fleuve’s lab to get his and Aile’s Biometals rechecked again. Vent was leaning next to the lab’s door while watching the old Reploid inspecting the Biometals with his computer. To the brown-haired Guardian, watching Fleuve’s work became more and more interesting when he was jobless.

“As I expected…” Fleuve turned to Vent, who was still leaning by the door, “The Biometals Model Z, Model H, Model L, Model F, and Model P can’t be used without being merged with Model X. It seems like you’re not the compatible Biomatch for them.”

“And your point?” Vent asked, still confused.

“It seems that Model X makes you and Aile able to use the other Biometals even if you two aren’t the Biomatch for them. The data of Model X is a little different from the other Biometals, and that’s probably the cause why Model X can allow you two to access the power of the other Biometals,” Fleuve explained before turning back to his computer and let out a sigh, “And it’s going to take a while before I can complete the replicas of the Biometals so you and Aile can rock on separately.”

“But why would Aile and I go into separate missions anyway?” Vent asked before he approached the old Reploid, “We’re a pretty good team together, and we’re pretty much inseparable!”

“Well, about that matter…” Fleuve turned to Vent, “I still don’t know yet, but the commander had been planning for a separate mission for the two of you…”

“But why would Prairie do that anyway?” Vent wondered, “If that’s true, then…”

“In case it happens, the commander asked me to make a replica for your Biometals so you can rock on separately,” Fleuve picked up Model Z and gave it to Vent, “But this is as far as I can do for now. I’ve altered the data for Model Z and Model X, so when you rock on, you’ll both transform into your ZX forms even with Model Z alone or Model X alone.”

Vent took the Biometal and looked at it before turning back to Fleuve, “But what happens when Model Z and Model X remerged again?”

“The data alteration will be cancelled, and they’ll need to be reprogrammed to regain that ability back,” Fleuve explained, “And the reprogramming isn’t easy to be done. You may look at the data here on the screen.”

While Fleuve continued his explanation with the help of the data shown on his computer screen, Aile and Prairie were in the command center, discussing the plans for the upcoming missions for both Vent and Aile.

“It’s going to be okay, Prairie,” Aile told the Guardian commander, “Vent and I might have not been into a mission separately since the incident with Serpent, but I know that we’re going to be fine! I’m going to be fine!”

“Aile…” Prairie stood up from her seat with a sad look on her face, “I’m sorry, but I’m just worried about how you’d react. I know how you feel for Vent, all of the Guardians except for Vent know.”

A faint blush appeared on Aile’s face, “I-Is my feelings for him really that obvious?” Aile looked at the Guardian commander, who gave her a nod, “W-Well, even if it’s obvious, at least Vent doesn’t know about it and I’m okay with it. Besides… there’s no way he’s going to fall for someone like me…”

“Aile… don’t think like that,” Aile turned back to the commander, “Even if that’s the case, I can tell that you’re going to hurt yourself by being away from him after the two of you spent years of growing up together.”

“Yes, I know it might hurt me, but…” Aile looked at Prairie while curling her hands into fists, “But if the mission involves helping millions of lives, I’ll bear with it. So Prairie, please call Vent here and brief us about the next missions!”

“Aile… alright, I understand…” Prairie turned away to speak through the intercom, “Vent, please come to the command center.”

It only took a moment before Vent came into the room, “Anything up? Another mission?”

Prairie nodded in reply, “Ever since Serpent was taken down, the number of Maverick outbreaks has slowly been increasing. Vent, I want you to go down there with the transerver and put a stop to them,” Vent nodded as Prairie turned to Aile. “Aile, you’ll stay here in the base. We’ll need your help just in case the Mavericks attack us from the air.”

 _‘So this is what Fleuve was talking about!’_ Vent thought before he turned to Prairie, “W-Wait! So you mean we’re doing this separately?”

Prairie nodded in reply, “Yes, but I’m not sure for how long. Is there a problem, Vent?” Prairie asked as Vent quickly turned to the door so they couldn’t see his blushing face.

“N-No! I’m fine, I’m fine!” Vent replied quickly before he walked towards the door. He stopped in front of the door and gulped. “Aile… I’ll see you later…”

“I wonder what’s with him…” Aile commented while looking at the door before turning back to Prairie, _‘He can’t be falling for me, can he? That’s just plainly impossible! He’s too childish to ever be interested in romance…’_

“Aile, are you okay?” Aile, who had unconsciously lowered her head, looked up at the Guardian commander.

“When you told me about being separated from him, I was thinking that it would be for a week or a month, so I was okay with it…” Aile lowered her head once more before letting out a sigh, “Now that you said that you didn’t know for how long, I’m not so sure I’m okay anymore…”

Prairie rose from her seat and gave the brown-haired Guardian a hug, “I’m sorry Aile… I should have told you the details earlier…”

“It’s okay, Prairie…” Aile broke the hug and smiled sadly, “We might be apart now, but I’m sure we’ll see each other again someday. After all, Vent is strong even on his own.”

“Aile…” Prairie let out a smile, “Alright, I’ll leave protecting the base to you and the Maverick raids to Vent.”


End file.
